Prophecy

Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters?

bduval — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 19:37:22 +0000

Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters? bduval Mon, 08/08/2022 - 19:37

Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters?

Gerald E. Weston

Booklet Media

#natural disasters

#climate change

#weather

Why do natural disasters ravage our world? Are hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disasters simply the natural order of things? Is mankind responsible for them, or does the label “acts of God” carry far more meaning than many realize? And what does the future hold? The answers to these questions will dramatically impact your future. You need to know!

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” This was the punchline from a series of catchy 1970s margarine ads. Apparently, when “Mother Nature” is fooled, bad things happen, including bad weather.

When destructive weather occurs, and when earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions wreak havoc, we generally consider them purely natural phenomena—all part of the natural order of things. Volcanoes and earthquakes are part and parcel of the creation of islands and mountains, but with them come tsunamis and other destructive effects. Hurricanes often cause serious damage, but they also transfer heat from warm ocean water to cooler areas of the planet and have been known to end droughts.

The fact is our home in the cosmos is very different from every other planet we have yet discovered. While there may be millions or even billions of planets in the universe, Earth has special features that allow for life as we know it. All one has to do is consider the other planets we see in our own solar system to realize how uniquely designed for life our planet is. It is reasonable to speculate that because there are so many planets of all kinds in the universe, some must be similar to ours. This seems rational, but it is nevertheless a speculation, still without proof or evidence to support it. Such speculations are in part driven by a naturalistic agenda that yearns to prove life evolved, that we can have law without a Lawgiver, design without a Designer, and life without a Life-giver—no God and no intelligence behind it all. This is naïve when we consider what we know for sure, and there are serious questions to which we should expect answers.

Where did the dirt under our feet come from? We take for granted that all physical matter came from somewhere at some time in the past. The “cosmic expansion,” or “big bang” as it is commonly referred to, indicates that there was a beginning, a time prior to which matter did not exist. So how did matter come to be? How did it form? And why? These are serious questions.

Most scientists now agree that there was a beginning to our universe. They also recognize that our universe is fine-tuned and designed in such a manner that allows life as we know it to exist. This creates a difficulty for those who subscribe to materialism, the belief that all things can be explained by material forces without the need for any outside intervention. If so, how could we be so lucky?

Several hypotheses have been put forward over the last century to explain a universe without God. Some have suggested that the universe expands and contracts—exploding into existence, then collapsing down to an unbelievably tiny, energy-packed point in empty space, only to expand again and start all over. In this way, some hope to avoid the idea of a beginning to our universe, suggesting that our cosmos came from an earlier cosmos that preceded it. Setting aside the fact that there is literally no evidence for such a claim, the idea raises another question. Even if this were so, how did the process begin? By what laws would this occur? Even modern cosmology says that such a process can’t go back forever into the past. There had to be a beginning.

In recent years, many scientists have become increasingly enamored by the concept of a multiverse—the idea that there are possibly an infinite number of universes in addition to our own, each with its own random set of laws. It is widely recognized that the odds of randomly obtaining a life-supporting universe like ours corresponds to only one chance in millions, billions, or even trillions. By hypothesizing an infinite number of universes, these theorists hope to overcome those incredible odds by assuming life has had an infinite number of “attempts” to get it right. We might refer to such a theory as a “universe lottery.”

The problem with this? There is no proof. In fact, zero evidence supports such a wild, baseless speculation. And multiverse theories still fail to answer the more fundamental question: How did the entire process begin? Even multiverse theories must conform to the requirement of a beginning. What is the source of matter and energy in the first place, and what kicked off this hypothetical multiverse? Regardless of their answers, why are materialists forced to speculate such things? The answer is obvious. They are convinced against all evidence that there can be no intelligence (i.e., “no God”) behind all that we see and know. As cosmologist Bernard Carr said bluntly in Discover magazine, “If you don’t want God, you’d better have a multiverse.”

EVIDENCE HARD TO DENY

Yes, our universe is fine-tuned to exist and our planet is fine-tuned to support life, but life is not a given on even the most fine-tuned of planets. The gap between dirt and living organisms is as great as that between the nothingness of empty space and a full-blown universe containing billions of star-filled galaxies with planets and moons. As Michael Denton writes regarding the likelihood of life coming into existence on its own:

Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small… each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery… far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world…. The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable, event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle (Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, pp. 250, 264).

Few today understand just how complex life truly is, but as atheists and evolutionists with PhDs discover this truth, is it any wonder that many quietly admit that evolution is a fraud? For many, it is easier to believe in “random miracles” than in an intelligent Creator who has rule over our lives. Here is the reason why: “Because the carnal [fleshly] mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). And so, the truth is suppressed (1:18).

The one time that God is brought into the picture is when we want to blame Him for some terrible misfortune. Insurance companies often have clauses in their policies that address circumstances they term “acts of God.” So, while men reject God, they are not shy about blaming Him when it suits their cause. Now to be fair, insurance companies have probably settled on this convenient expression as a simple way to refer to events no one can control. So, who is responsible for natural disasters?

That may sound like an easy question to answer, but apparently it is not. Are natural disasters merely part of “the way things are”? Are they a matter of chance? Are they from God? Are they the result of man’s deeds—products of human-induced climate change, or even government conspiracies?

CHAPTER 2
CAN MAN CONTROL THE WEATHER?

Natural disasters have doubtless been with us longer than records have been kept. Man has learned to lessen their disastrous effects through early warning systems and stronger building codes. Nevertheless, when man meets the fury of nature, man is no match.

The year 2019 had barely begun before two major weather disasters struck. On one side of the earth, hope turned to tragedy:

After seven years of drought, elated cattle farmers in the Australian state of Queensland welcomed the rainstorms heading their way as a blessing. But now, after one of the most devastating deluges in state history, a billion-dollar industry could be left in tatters. Authorities estimate that nearly 500,000 cattle… have been killed by flooding in Queensland’s north since the rain began falling late last month (“Australian floods: 500,000 cattle survived years-long drought only to die in the rain,” Fox61.com, February 13, 2019).

Only a month later, on the other side of the globe, melting snow and massive rains brought some of the worst flooding in history to the American Midwest. The agricultural state of Nebraska was hit hard, with 70 percent of its counties declared natural disaster areas. Cattle were stranded and many farmlands were left so wet that there would be no planting for the year. Ranchers and farmers were already hard-pressed, and this made some question whether to call it quits. As one rancher put it, “Maybe it’s a sign from God” that it is time to change professions (Washington Post, March 19, 2019).

Natural catastrophes can change the course of history and bring down nations. The American Dust Bowl of the 1930s spurred the migration of whole families from Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas as they pulled up stakes to seek their fortunes in California. Disasters etch times and places into our minds when we are personally affected. How could anyone who lived in New Orleans or along the Gulf Coast in August 2005 ever forget Hurricane Katrina? Even when the scale of the disaster is comparatively smaller, those who live through nature’s wrath are often changed forever.

Violent thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes (also known as typhoons or cyclones) are a constant problem in some parts of the world. Hailstorms inflict damage to homes, automobiles, and crops. Droughts result in crop losses, destructive fires, starvation, and loss of life. Blizzards take lives and make life miserable for any caught out in them. All these and more happen around the world, seemingly at random. While scientists can explain most of them, as well as other natural disasters, what are the causes of unpredictable and extreme weather?

According to some conspiracy buffs, the U.S. government controls weather through chemicals dispersed into the atmosphere. A surprising number of people believe that some, if not most so-called weather disasters result from chemical trails (chemtrails) seen in the sky and dispersed at high altitudes by government aircraft. That rumor began spreading in 1996 and continues today, even though it has been debunked by numerous proofs, such as old photographs demonstrating the presence of such contrails in the sky, caused by WWII aircraft—decades before the so-called conspiracy began. Of course, that will simply lead many to “reason” that the conspiracy goes back further than anyone thought. It is harder to knock down a conspiracy than to turn lead into gold. Some people are convinced by what they read on the Internet, no matter the facts. Flat earth, anyone?

There is no doubt that attempts to alter climate have been and are still being made. “Cloud seeding” schemes have been around since the mid-1940s, and are not only practiced by the United States, but by other countries as well. One famous claim for success came in 2009, when Hebei Province in China used cloud seeding in an attempt to end a severe drought. “Engineers blasted more than 400 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide into the sky shortly before the storm, and a senior engineer told Reuters that it was ‘a procedure that made the snow a lot heavier’” (Scientific American, February 19, 2009). The snow that followed the seeding was the area’s first precipitation in more than three months.

Cloud seeding expert Arlen Huggins of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, responded to a question regarding the Chinese experiment. “Generally, you can’t look at one individual storm. Would it have snowed anyway? You don’t know… Attributing one storm to seeding is very difficult unless the cloud system is incredibly simple, like fog that has no chance of precipitation. If you see snowfall then, that’s pretty demonstrative evidence that you succeeded” (ibid.).

The United Arab Emirates is one of the driest places on earth and began regular cloud seeding in 2000. In 2017, the UAE performed 242 seeding operations. Seeding cumulous clouds—the only kind that offer such operations any chance of success—with a mixture of potassium chloride, sodium chloride, magnesium, and a few other chemicals, they hoped to increase the amount of rainfall from an individual cloud by 15 to 30 percent. The government is confident it is increasing the amount of rainfall, but admits this is difficult to gauge. Amar Aly Azeedi of the UAE National Centre of Meteorology says, “Until now there is no way that you can measure the success rate for each individual cloud… [since] no two clouds are the same, and you don’t know, for example—before actually you see the cloud—is it going to rain by itself or not and by how much” (“Cloud seeding: How the UAE gets creative to increase rainfall.” The National, January 18, 2018).

Project Stormfury was an attempt made by the United States to lessen the power of hurricanes. The U.S. government began the experiment in 1962, and while there appeared to be some early success, later analysis of the results demonstrated that the results were illusory. The project was dropped in 1983.

It is reasonable to believe that human efforts have modified individual storms to a small degree, but this is a far cry from boasting that man controls the weather.

THE QUESTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Much time and many resources are currently spent promoting the theory that human activity is warming the planet, with disastrous consequences on the horizon. Of course, those of us who remember the 1970s recall similar cries of warning about catastrophe awaiting mankind because of “global cooling”! I lived in Michigan at the time, and seven of my nine years there were colder than normal, so it did not take much to convince me. However, anecdotal evidence is simplistic and far from scientific. While it is known that climate can change due to natural causes over time, much of the evidence for human-caused global warming relies on computer models and simulations. Weather is complex and is affected by many factors, such as solar cycles and volcanic eruptions. Some scientists believe these are greater contributors to global temperature variations than mankind’s activities. The sales pitch aside, computer models are simply sophisticated forms of speculation at best.

Some may take offense to the idea of calling human-caused global warming a “theory” instead of a “fact,” but the Climategate scandal that broke on November 19, 2009, gave powerful ammunition to those who question the conventional wisdom concerning climate change. A treasure trove of e-mails and other sensitive documents from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in England were leaked to the public, revealing manipulation of data regarding global warming research—manipulation that some say amounted to fraud, though such a conclusion is understandably disputed. The significance of this was immense, because the CRU at East Anglia is a high-profile promoter of the theory that the planet is warming, disaster is on the horizon, and mankind is the cause. Climategate, as it was dubbed, received a lot more attention in the United Kingdom than in North America, where a liberal press avoided it, but as the following news report brings out, it was no trivial issue:

What we are looking at here is the small group of scientists who have for years been more influential in driving the worldwide alarm over global warming than any others, not least through the role they play at the heart of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Professor Philip Jones, the CRU’s director, is in charge of the two key sets of data used by the IPCC to draw up its reports. Through its link to the Hadley Centre, part of the UK Met Office, which selects most of the IPCC’s key scientific contributors, his global temperature record is the most important of the four sets of temperature data on which the IPCC and governments rely—not least for their predictions that the world will warm to catastrophic levels unless trillions of dollars are spent to avert it (Christopher Booker, “Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation.” The Telegraph, November 28, 2009).

We can avoid the political debate while still recognizing relevant facts: Global cooling in the 1970s was replaced by global warming, which morphed into the broader climate change to cover all localized eventualities. Of course, climate does change. There were periods in earth’s history when large sheets of ice covered much of the Northern Hemisphere. The evidence is there for anyone willing to check into it. Then there was the Medieval Warm Period when, according to some scientists, temperatures on the earth—or at least parts of it—were 1.6 to 3.2 degrees centigrade warmer than during the early twentieth century, which is considered a more typical time (John P. Rafferty, “Medieval Warm Period.” Encyclopedia Britannica, November 18, 2014).

DENIERS AND DEVOTEES

Those who promote global warming or climate change typically accuse those who do not agree of being climate change “deniers,” when often the opposite is true. Many “deniers” are the ones who believe climate changes and goes through various cycles, as clearly seen from historical records found in literature, tree rings, ice core samplings, and other sources. They simply question the popular understanding and interpretations of what is currently happening with our climate.

There is no doubt that some take manmade global warming seriously, so much so that a team of Harvard University researchers plan an experiment to cool the earth by diminishing the sun’s impact on our planet. Nature magazine online had the following headline: “First sun-dimming experiment will test a way to cool Earth.” The article went on to say that in early 2019, “Researchers plan to spray sunlight-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, an approach that could ultimately be used to quickly lower the planet’s temperature.... The idea is simple: spray a bunch of particles into the stratosphere, and they will cool the planet by reflecting some of the Sun’s rays back into space” (Jeff Tollefson, November 27, 2018).

The $3 million experiment will spray a very small amount of calcium carbonate, the stuff people take for heartburn, into the stratosphere in the southwest United States. Researchers will then observe how it disperses and monitor other effects. But meddling with nature does not come without criticism. According to Nature, “Researchers have largely restricted their work on such tactics to computer models. Among the concerns is that dimming the Sun could backfire, or at least strongly disadvantage some areas of the world by, for example, robbing crops of sunlight and shifting rain patterns” (ibid.).

It may be that we are experiencing a warming trend, and it may also be true that mankind is partly or wholly responsible for it. Or, it may be that political and monetary forces are responsible for a great hoax. Such an exploration is beyond the focus of this work. However, the truth about who controls the weather can be known. No matter how much man tampers with or carelessly causes changes in weather, this booklet will show that there is yet another source that has infinitely greater power to affect the forces of nature.

CHAPTER 3
THE POWER OF NATURE

The twenty-first century had barely begun before one of the worst tragedies in mankind’s history struck. On December 26, 2004, an underwater earthquake measuring between 9.1 and 9.3 on the Richter Scale struck off the coast of Sumatra. An estimated 225,000 victims succumbed to the tsunami that followed, as it traveled to coastlands surrounding the Indian Ocean.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan and triggered a tsunami with catastrophic effect. Loss of life was not as great as from the Indian Ocean tsunami, but still significant. More than 15,000 people are confirmed to have died, with 2,500 still missing. Property losses, including the destruction of the Fukushima nuclear plant, are estimated to be $199 billion, and as late as 2017, some 50,000 Japanese were still in temporary housing.

Our planet is very different from any other that we have been able to see. Consider its beauty and diversity, its mountains and valleys, its deserts, wetlands, frozen regions, islands, rivers, and lakes. Vast oceans warm, cool, and moderate temperatures. The Gulf Stream brings warm water up the east coast of North America and across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom and northwestern Europe. Thousands of tons of nutrient-rich desert sands blow across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa and feed South American rain forests. The oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle dances the fine line necessary for plant and animal life. Plants give off oxygen and animals give off carbon dioxide—each needing the other. Too much or too little of one or the other would eventually cut off life as we know it. Thankfully, and amazingly, our atmosphere maintains a constant 20.95 percent of oxygen. Yes, we live on a remarkable planet—one far more complex than we might first imagine.

Complexity, beauty, perfection, and balance are found everywhere. This should cause the curious mind to wonder whether all of this is the result of a lucky accident or the result of design. As we noted in the introduction, when the evidence is reviewed, only the fool can conclude that our world is an accident. It has been designed by some great Being. Similarly, it would stand to reason that this Being might actually have something to do with the forces that we refer to as “nature.” Does that mean that all weather upsets and so-called natural disasters are directly caused by this Being? Is every “act of God” truly an act of God?

A POWERFUL AND DYNAMIC WORLD

We live on a dynamic planet. Many complex factors go into creating a world of changing and somewhat random weather conditions. Thunderstorms can be frightening, but they serve good purposes. They provide water needed for agriculture, especially during hot summer months. They clean our air, distribute seeds, and trim trees, and about 20 percent of the nitrogen compounds needed for plant growth are a direct result of lightning.

Hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons move warm air from the tropics to cooler latitudes, moderating temperatures in both locations. Snow can be troublesome, but it also provides a blanket that protects soil and crops, such as winter wheat. And what child is not awed by his first snowfall? It transforms otherwise unremarkable landscapes into a wonderland of beauty and play, for both children and adults.

Some earthquakes build mountains, as do volcanoes. Hawaii is a very popular tourist destination, as are the islands of the South Pacific. These beautiful volcanic islands are the stuff of songs and musicals. But as we know, volcanoes can be very dangerous to anyone living too close to them. Thousands of people perished in Pompeii and the surrounding area when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D.

Fifty-seven people died when Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. On Historylink.org, Greg Lange describes the devastation wreaked by that event:

One couple died while watching the eruption 25 miles away from the mountain. The deaths were caused by heat, by being buried under the debris avalanche, or by suffocation when ash raining down was inhaled…. At 660 degrees F., hot gases and pulverized pieces of the mountain were blasted to the north and swept along the ground at speeds of at least 300 mph…. In less than five minutes after the eruption, the seething blast continued out 18 to 23 miles from the mountain, killing nearly all vegetation. Trees, mainly Douglas Firs, some 200 feet high, were stripped of branches and bark and blown down like toothpicks. Some old growth trees were picked up, roots and all, and thrown over a ridge 1,500 feet high…. In moments Mount St. Helens dropped from being the fifth highest mountain in Washington at 9,677 feet to being the 30th highest peak at 8,364 feet. The south side of the mountain lost 1,313 feet in elevation and the north side lost about 2,900 feet. The volcano left a crater more than a square mile wide…. Some 1,000 miles of state highways and roads have to be closed, some for months, and highway repairs alone run into hundreds of millions of dollars (“Mount St. Helens erupts on May 18, 1980.” May 15, 2003).

There were warning signs of a catastrophe in the making, just as there had been before Mount Vesuvius erupted. The north side of St. Helens bulged some 300 feet and was growing five to six feet a day. Warnings to evacuate the area were given, but as is often the case, people do not heed such warnings: “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; the simple pass on and are punished” (Proverbs 27:12).

Some effects of wild weather can be mitigated by avoiding low-lying and coastal areas that are prone to flooding. Few places on our dynamic earth are totally free of danger, but we must take some responsibility for where and how we build, considering the potential for danger where we live. Structures can be built to withstand high winds and earthquakes. There are often warning signs that indicate it is time to move to safer ground. Self-proclaimed “intelligent beings” that we are, we ought to be able to figure out some of these things!

In fact, the destructiveness of many natural disasters can be lessened, or even totally eliminated, by wise planning. Building in an area prone to flooding is not wise. Building on beach sand may provide a beautiful view, but it comes with a calculated risk. We did not have to wait until the twenty-first century to learn this lesson. It was known 2,000 years ago that building a house on sand was considered an act of foolishness (Matthew 7:26–27).

Building a city on the side of a volcano has certain advantages. Fresh running water from the mountain and the nearby natural harbor contributed to make Pompeii the prosperous city that it was, but there was a known risk. Additionally, there were warning signs that the mountain was about to explode. Some got out. Those who did not paid the ultimate price. When the eruption occurred, destruction came quickly. Thick, choking ash rained down for 18 hours before the cone collapsed and sent a wall of mud down its slopes at 100 miles an hour. An estimated 10,000 to 25,000 people were buried where they fell, frozen in time.

Yet, as we have noted, the world around us clearly has a Designer, Architect, and Engineer! Does He not have some purpose for us? Why does He allow such calamities to befall His creation? Can He prevent these disasters? Does He ever cause them? Is it possible that He has communicated the answers to us in some fashion?

Yes, He has! And what He has to say should get our attention.

CHAPTER 4
THE GOD OF NATURE

The Bible is unique among all the “holy books” ever written. No other book compares. Some 40 different authors wrote it over a period of 1,500 years and over a geographical area stretching some 1,500 miles, from modern day Iraq to Italy. It contains history, genealogy, poetry and prose, proverbs, songs, and prophetic pronouncements. The accuracy of its prophecies, which make up one-fourth to one-third of its pages, has been remarkable. Some easily understood prophecies were fulfilled millennia ago. Other prophecies are being fulfilled right now, with more to take place as we near the end of the age.

The consistency of the Bible’s message is also remarkable. A simple comparison of its first and final books illustrates the point. The Companion Bible lists more than 20 shared themes between the books of Genesis and Revelation. Yet two different men—who were separated by 1,500 years, two very different cultures, and two different languages—wrote these books.

When this amazing book tells us something about natural disasters, we ought to sit up and take notice. Those who never read the Bible may be surprised to learn that weather and other seemingly natural calamities are discussed in its pages. According to this book, many calamities involving weather, earthquakes, volcanoes, and asteroids are in our near future!

A GOD WHO USES NATURE

Most people in professing Christian nations have heard of Noah, his ark, and a catastrophic flood. Even those who view it as a mere story, something akin to a fairy tale, are nevertheless somewhat familiar with it. After all, wasn’t there a movie about Noah? Sadly, the movie was a horrific corruption of the original account! But was a worldwide flood for real? Did it happen? Could it happen? Consider that even the most torrential downpours lasting 40 days without any let-up could hardly cover even moderate-sized mountains. For this and other reasons, many today, even many professing Christians, find a universal flood too fantastic to accept. But a careful reading of the Scriptures reveals that there is more to the story than most realize.

According to the Bible, the flood involved not only rain, but geologic disturbances. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Genesis 7:11). This was more than a nasty rainstorm. Something dramatic took place. Water came from above and below.

Some speculate that the atmosphere changed, and that originally there may have been far greater reservoirs of water overhead, which fell as rain. If so, more radiation would have penetrated the atmosphere after the flood, thus shortening lifespans—an intriguing speculation since the Bible records that, prior to the flood, men lived as long as 900 years, but afterward “threescore and ten years” became a good long life (Psalm 90:10). We can only speculate on this, as no one knows with any certainty the reason for such a change.

Was this flood an act of God? Or was it a natural, but mysterious, occurrence? If an act of God, why? Why would God bring about such a great calamity? The Bible gives us an answer, and it helps us understand why many, though not all, disasters take place: human sin. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.… The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:5, 11). This flood was, indeed, an “act of God.”

The Bible tells us that conditions will be the same in the end time as they were in Noah’s day. Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). He gave the following summation in addition to very specific signs: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (v. 37).

Sadly, we are not far from that time! Increasingly, every intent of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually, and the earth is corrupt and filled with violence! Consider the way we entertain ourselves. Remove illicit sex and violence and screenwriters would be out of work. It is difficult to find a book that is “clean” in language and content. Even our music promotes exploitation of women and violence against constituted authority.

Adultery and fornication (that is, sex before marriage) are rampant. Civility has left our public discourse. Same-sex marriage is accepted, and transgenderism is pushed on grade school children! Abortion murders millions of the most innocent among us under the guise of “a woman’s right to choose.” What about the baby’s choice? In early 2019, New York legislators literally celebrated when they passed a law that allowed killing babies at any time up to the very moment of birth. We are playing with fire. As we will see, disaster is on the horizon.

SHAPING HISTORY THROUGH DISASTER

One does not have to leave the book of Genesis to learn of other “acts of God” relating to weather. God clearly had a plan in mind for the great-grandson of Abraham. When Joseph was 17 years old, his brothers sold him to a caravan traveling to Egypt, where he eventually ended up in prison on trumped-up charges leveled by a scorned and vindictive woman. But, through a series of events that you can read about in the book of Genesis, Joseph came to the attention of Pharaoh, who was greatly disturbed by two exceptionally realistic dreams. Here is what he saw in the first:

Behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river. Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. Then behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning. So I awoke (Genesis 41:17–21).

The second dream was similar, but involved heads of grain. Here is how Pharaoh described it:

Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven heads came up on one stalk, full and good. Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me (Genesis 41:22–24).

Pharaoh had heard that Joseph could interpret dreams and summoned him to explain this one. Joseph responded that it was God who gave this ability, and he explained to Pharaoh that the Almighty was using the dream to warn about what He was about to do: There would be seven years of bumper crops in Egypt followed by seven years of severe famine (vv. 25–32). This happened exactly as Joseph predicted. God used both ideal weather and famine-causing drought to fulfill His remarkable plan. Others may have thought these were random, chance occurrences. They were not. They were “acts of God.”

These alternating seven years of plenty and seven years of famine brought about the touching reunion of Joseph’s family in Egypt, where they remained and grew in numbers for more than 200 years. In the course of time and under a very different Pharaoh, they became slaves to the Egyptians. When God determined that the time was right, He brought them out of Egypt and took them to the land that we know today as Israel. But how did He do so?

The book of Exodus records ten supernatural ecological and human disasters. Some were directly or indirectly weather-related. Notice the announcement Moses made to Pharaoh in advance of the seventh plague: “Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down, such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now” (Exodus 9:18). This disaster brought death and destruction to man and animal. All died who remained in the open. This, too, was an “act of God.”

ENDING SODOM AND GOMORRAH

The Bible records a disaster that was wrought upon the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Much like Pompeii, this area was wealthy and sexually perverse, so much so that God brought destruction upon it. God has limits to what He will tolerate. This should not be lost on us. Once a population reaches a certain level of sinful behavior, He says, in effect, “Enough is enough.” This is what brought the flood upon the earth. As we already read, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were similarly evil. We are told that God would have spared them if even ten righteous people were found there (Genesis 18:23–32). Sadly, there were not. The city was so corrupt that when righteous Lot took in two strangers for the night, men of the city attempted to break in to rape them. The only recourse was for Lot and three members of his family to flee the city before God destroyed it.

Some speculate that a meteor or comet blew apart overhead, compressing the air, thus heating it to a great temperature and raining down fiery particles on the cities. Archaeologists may debate the exact mechanism by which God destroyed the cities. What the Bible reveals is: “Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground” (Genesis 19:24–25). Whatever happened, this was an “act of God.”

One cannot help but wonder whether Pompeii’s destruction was similarly the result of God’s judgment, as it is known to have been one of the most licentious cities of the ancient world. Excavations reveal that there were at least 26 houses of prostitution, and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Napoli) closed some sections to the public for decades due to the graphic sexual nature of the displays. Even today, those 14 years old and under must be accompanied by an adult to be allowed into these rooms at the museum.

ULTIMATELY IN CONTROL

We can now see that it is God who is ultimately in control of what happens on planet Earth.

Yet calamity comes not only to the obviously wicked, but also to the innocent. The destruction caused by natural catastrophes can appear indiscriminate at times. We may wonder why God would allow the seemingly innocent to be injured and die in sudden disasters. We might consider God cruel and unfair. We might think this way because we do not understand the big picture.

How did the world come to be the way it is? We answer that question next.

CHAPTER 5
OUR PAST EXPLAINS OUR PRESENT

When we consider our experience on this planet, questions naturally arise. Why did God make the earth so dangerous—earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, tornados, typhoons? And let’s not forget about sinkholes that can open suddenly, destroying property and taking lives. Could not a loving God make a safer place for man to dwell? Is survival on our earthly home left to chance?

From the beginning, mankind has thumbed its nose at God. Our first parents started us down a wrong path, and we have individually and collectively gone down that same path willingly. God placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden with luscious fruit trees of all sorts. Every fruit- and nut-bearing tree was made available to them, except one, and that is the one they chose. In reality, it was not the specific fruit that mattered, but what it represented. By taking of that which was forbidden, Adam and Eve declared their independence from God. They said, in effect, “Leave us alone. We want to determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.”

The result was that they were kicked out of the garden to do their own thing. They were given the “freedom” to live on their own, and that meant a lot of painful lessons. God would not automatically intervene for them when trouble brewed beneath their feet or in the skies above. Note what God told Adam because of his disobedience: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17–19). To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (v. 16).

There is a certain amount of symbolism in these curses. When God speaks of the woman conceiving and bringing forth children in pain, He addresses not only the physical pain of childbirth, but also the pain she would experience in bringing forth children in a world cut off from God. How painful it is for a parent, especially a mother, to see a child suffer an early death due to riotous living—but we still want to do our own thing. We think we know better than God does. The results are drug addiction, sexual diseases, broken homes, and more. But also, God no longer automatically blesses our physical world. “Thorns and thistles” refer to more than just sharp objects on bushes.

A WORLD OF OUR OWN MAKING

Understanding the beginning of human civilization explains why the world is the way it is today.

Could God stop natural disasters? Could He give adequate warnings so people could get out of the way while He builds a new island or mountain? Could He direct the wind to take a course away from His children? Of course He could! Who created the dirt under our feet? Who created the law of gravity, the strong force and the weak force? Cannot the God who created the universe and life on this planet protect us? Scientists understand that our universe did not always exist. So how did it come to be? We are so arrogant we conclude that it all happened by chance—so God is allowing us to live in a world of chance. The disasters that “time and chance” throw at us should get our attention.

It is often said that when enemy bombs fall from the sky, there are no atheists in foxholes. That may or may not be true. Some atheists sincerely and deeply believe there is no God. However, anyone with even the smallest inkling that God might exist can be brought to his knees in more than one way when the earth shakes violently beneath him. How many cry out to God when a tornado tears apart their home, and debris crashes down upon them? How many cussing sailors suddenly “get religion” when hurricane-force winds threaten to tear their ships apart?

One psalm explains the emotions we experience when confronted with fearful forces beyond our control:

Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works of the Lord… For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, so that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; so He guides them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! (Psalm 107:23–31).

Yes, when the waves roar, when hurricane-force winds blow, when the ground beneath our feet shakes violently, when we are stranded in a blizzard—then we cry out for help. But what happens when the ground stops shaking and the winds subside? How many promises to “turn over a new leaf” are broken?

The above psalm does not indicate that God causes every storm and calms every wind. He sets these forces in motion, and they are reminders of our need for Him. And as we have already seen, He does intervene directly at times for His purposes.

Solomon wrote that “time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them” (Ecclesiastes 9:11–12). How sad that is. It did not have to be this way, and it will not always be this way, but let us not get ahead of the story.

God created us, gave life to each of us individually, and blessed us with a beautiful and dynamic planet on which to live. He gave us wise instructions on how to have abundant and successful lives and how to live in harmony with one another. He is more than capable of steering us clear of danger, but we think we know better than He does, not realizing there is a price for our wrong-headed decisions. He put it in very simple terms. “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

We choose to go it alone without God. Only when we are in trouble do we cry out to Him. That is not true of everyone, but it is a too-accurate picture of mankind in general. Even those of us who profess to serve and worship God are flawed. This is why we have heartache and suffering in a host of different areas of life, and this is why we have “natural disasters.” There is a lesson in such moments if we are willing to learn it. Unsteady rocks beneath our feet, peals of thunder in our ears, and strong winds above our heads teach us that we are not in control of everything. At least for an instant, we are aware of our need for our Creator.

Time and chance, natural disasters, bumps and bruises—these are the results of choosing the forbidden fruit. Whenever a society or humankind as a whole becomes completely corrupt, God allows or uses these “natural” forces to wake us up. Sometimes it is merely a painful loss, but other times the loss of life is to teach others the consequences of a world without God.

ACTS OF THE DEVIL?

God is ultimately responsible for “natural” occurrences on the earth. He created the earth to be the varied, beautiful, and dynamic place that it is, and as we have already seen, He directly intervenes in the natural world from time to time to bring about His purposes. Yet, within this context, there is another factor not yet considered.

Job is one of the most intriguing books found in the Bible. It tells the story of a righteous man’s suffering, and it gives us some insight into the unseen and often unacknowledged spirit world. God loved Job, but he had a problem that needed to be addressed and overcome. We read how the great adversary, the Devil, appeared in heaven. God set a trap for the Devil with this question: “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1:8). The Devil took the bait and unwittingly helped God bring Job to the place where he could see himself in a different light.

Satan replied that Job only obeyed God because of the protective care God gave His servant. “But now,” the Devil challenged, “stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” (v. 11). God gave the Devil permission to afflict Job, while putting limits on what he could do. The result was a series of disasters that followed one another in close succession. One was “a great wind” that caused the house to collapse and kill Job’s children (v. 19). While God could have prevented this, He chose not to. He allowed the Destroyer to bring disaster after disaster upon Job, because God had a greater purpose for him. We might term this an “act of the Devil.” But ultimately, it was allowed by God.

This account should not be dismissed. There is an evil spirit at work in this world, and he is no doubt responsible for some, maybe even many, so-called natural disasters. After all, Jesus called him “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) and the Apostle Paul referred to him as “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Paul also described him as “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).

The powerful cherub Lucifer was given a throne—a position of authority over the earth—at some time in the far distant past, but he was not satisfied. Thinking he was wiser than God, he wanted to be in charge, and tried to knock God off His throne in heaven. But he was cast back down to the earth (Isaiah 14:12–15). He will remain here as the “god of this age” until the time in the future when he will be removed from influencing mankind for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1–3). After that, he will be allowed for a short time to test people once again, before being banished forever. God has a purpose for leaving him here. He allows this spirit being to test us, to see which way of life we love the most. He wants to know what is in our hearts.

Lucifer’s name was changed to Satan (meaning adversary) or the Devil (meaning accuser), but in Revelation 9:11 he is referred to as Abaddon in Hebrew, and Apollyon in Greek. Both these words mean destroyer. Satan is a destroyer! He destroyed Job’s family and property when God allowed him the opportunity. God used Satan to help Job learn an important lesson. Therefore, while Satan did the destroying, it was God in heaven who was in complete control. Satan could only go so far.

These facts of history explain our past. But what of the future? If God is ultimately in control, and if He uses the weather and natural disasters to achieve His ends in the world, what can we expect in the years to come? We’ve seen that mankind seems determined to go its own way, having done little in the years since the Garden of Eden to turn back to our Creator. What does humanity’s continuing rebellion portend for our future?

The Bible reveals the answers in detail, and we examine them next.

CHAPTER 6
PROPHECY REVEALS OUR FUTURE

The Bible’s examples of God’s intervention in the weather should not be shrugged off as myth, nor as ancient history that has nothing to do with us in our world today. Scripture gives warnings regarding the relationship between our behavior and the effects of weather. Even before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God explained that good weather would result if they obeyed Him. “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely” (Leviticus 26:3–5). A similar prediction of great agricultural bounty is found in Deuteronomy 28:1, 12.

But weather imbalances would bring agricultural disasters upon God’s people if they disobeyed. There would be catastrophes caused by drought and agricultural pestilences:

And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed…. You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off…. Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land (Deuteronomy 28:23–24, 38–40, 42).

Similarly, Leviticus gives this warning: “But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments.… I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit” (Leviticus 26:14, 19–20).

You may be thinking, “Oh, but that doesn’t apply to us today!” That would be a mistake. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Most professing Christians are profoundly ignorant of the Bible’s message. They assume these warnings were only for the Jews. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Jews come from the tribe of Judah, and Judah is only one of twelve tribes in Israel. Some assume erroneously that the other eleven tribes have been absorbed among other peoples and no longer exist, but this cannot be so—not according to the Bible.

For example, the reward Jesus promised His apostles was that they would each rule over one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30). Also, we find that when Christ returns, He will bring back the house of Israel (the northern ten tribes) and unite it with the house of Judah, the Jews and Benjamites (Ezekiel 37:19–24). If you have not read our booklet The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, be sure to call, write, or go online to receive your free copy. It will open your mind to understand end-time prophecy as you never have before.

BIBLE PROPHECY IS OFTEN DUAL

The Bible often records prophecies that have both a former and a later fulfillment. One example of this is found in the prophetic book of Amos. This prophet was clearly speaking to the people of his day, but he was also speaking to the end-time house of Israel. Amos 5:18–20 speaks of the day of the Lord, the time at the very end of man’s misrule on earth, when God will directly intervene in the affairs of the entire world.

According to Amos, weather and agricultural disasters are in our future because of our sins.

“Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. “I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord (Amos 4:6–9).

This was then—and will also be in our day—an “act of God.”

Are these conditions not extant in our world right now? God tells us that if we obey Him, He will give us rain in its season (Leviticus 26:3–5). But is this what we see? Look about you. What we see are severe droughts followed by brush fires, and floods producing mudslides. Maybe California and Australia should pay greater attention to God!

FUTURE CATASTROPHES

Bible prophecy indicates that just prior to the return of His Son, God will use “natural disasters” on a scale never before seen to get rebellious mankind’s attention. Revelation 6 describes the ride of four horsemen, each introducing horrors to occur on the earth at the end of this age. The first horse is white and its rider pictures false Christianity (Revelation 6:1–2; compare Matthew 24:4–5). The second is a red horse, picturing war (vv. 3–4; cf. Matthew 24:6–7).

The third horse is black, and its rider has “a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine’” (vv. 5–6). This portends famine and drought on a greater scale than we have previously known, and may to some extent be a direct result of the red horse of war.

The fourth horse is pale and pictures death through disease, earthquakes, and various other disasters (compare Revelation 6:7–8 and Matthew 24:7). The death of a fourth of humanity is attributed to the ride of these four horsemen, but the devastation does not stop there. Revelation describes a scroll with seven seals to be opened, and the four horsemen represent only the first four of these seals. The fifth seal represents an end-time martyrdom of true Christians.

The next seal represents frightening disturbances on the earth and in the sky. “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind” (Revelation 6:12–13). This is not describing a solar eclipse or a simple “blood moon” eclipse. These are the results of supernatural disturbances in the heavens and a great earthquake here on earth. These will strike terror into the hearts of all. “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains...” (v. 15). This description might be thought of as a “natural disaster” extraordinaire, but it is, in reality, an “act of God.”

WHAT NEXT?

So far, we have seen that the Book of Revelation lays out a series of end-time events, some of which involve what man thinks of as natural disasters—famines, earthquakes, and terrible heavenly disturbances. But this is not the end. When the seventh seal of the scroll is broken, it introduces the blowing of seven trumpets, each heralding a catastrophe.

The first four are described in Revelation 8, one after another, as each trumpet is blown by an angel.

They are devastating from the very beginning: “The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up” (v. 7). Apparently, one-third of the earth’s surface is affected by this mysterious disaster, which destroys both trees and grass. We find it difficult to imagine exactly what this could be, but it is clearly some kind of ecological disaster of unimaginable proportions, affecting one-third of the earth’s foliage.

The next two trumpets also symbolize disasters, and we can make educated guesses regarding what is described.

Consider the second of the seven: “Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed” (vv. 8–9). While we cannot know with certainty, it is easy to imagine this as representing the explosion of a volcanic mountain—an incident of such magnitude that the eruptions of Mount St. Helens and Mount Vesuvius would look like minor events. But is this possible? Is it realistic?

Explosions of far greater magnitude than those two events have taken place on the earth in times past. There are volcanoes known as super-volcanoes, and they are thousands of times greater than Mount St. Helens. One such super-volcano lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The caldera—the crater of the volcano—is so large that one does not recognize it while standing within it. The entire park, around 40 miles (60 kilometers) in diameter, is actually the caldera! If this super-volcano were to explode, as geologists believe it has done several times in the past, the devastation would stretch so far that it would be the end of the United States and Canada. It would happen in an instant, and a shocked world would stand in awe.

The good news is that the Yellowstone super-volcano apparently goes a very long time between eruptions—hundreds of thousands of years, according to geologists. Also, this second trumpet in Revelation 8:8–9 is speaking of a mountain near a very busy shipping lane. Yellowstone does not fit this description, but some super-volcanoes are found in Asia near the South China Sea, where a third of all global shipping passes, as this report (one of many) explains:

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that roughly 80 percent of global trade by volume and 70 percent by value is transported by sea. Of that volume, 60 percent of maritime trade passes through Asia, with the South China Sea carrying an estimated one-third of global shipping. Its waters are particularly critical for China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, all of which rely on the Strait of Malacca, which connects the South China Sea and, by extension, the Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean (“How much trade transits the South China Sea?” Center for Strategic and International Studies, emphasis added).

Explosive super-volcanoes do not erupt often, but when they do, the destruction goes way beyond anything man can imagine, and has worldwide ramifications. Such an explosion is prophesied to occur at the end of the age, a time we have very good cause to believe we are living in right now. But there is more.

“Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter” (Revelation 8:10–11). We often refer to a meteor entering earth’s atmosphere as a “shooting star.” Most are very small and never reach the earth. However, we know that in the past, larger asteroids have hit our planet. Some speculate that such an event is what killed the dinosaurs. Again, we cannot know with certainty, but this appears to be what is described in Revelation—a large asteroid striking the earth where a great amount of fresh water is found. Could this be the Himalayas, whose great rivers feed much of Asia? Could it be the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada? Wherever it is, the timing and sequence of these events will truly be “acts of God.”

“PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD!”

As we have seen, natural disasters are the consequence of living on a dynamic and changing planet. But on a deeper level, we suffer from them because humanity as a whole has said to God, “Leave us alone. We would rather decide for ourselves how to live.” When God says, “You shall not commit adultery,” we say, “It’s okay if you don’t get caught. It may even be good for your marriage.” When God says, “You shall not murder,” we say, “War is another means of diplomacy.” Tens of millions of the most innocent among us are murdered because we believe that it is a woman’s right to choose. Sex before marriage is so rampant in Western nations that we automatically assume two people regularly dating each other are sleeping together. And when a baby is born, we are now so confused that we cannot tell whether the child should be considered male or female.

Whatever God says, we do the opposite. He says the seventh day is a day of rest. We say it doesn’t matter. We like the first day of the week, the day sun-worshiping Roman Emperor Constantine chose. The list of our disagreements with God is endless, and the list of “acts of God” is endless as well. Each year, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and famines ravage parts of the earth.

We mentioned a portion of Amos’ prophesy earlier, but consider all it has to say. God gave that warning through Amos to ancient Israel, and—as we have seen—much of Bible prophecy is dual. This is our future unless and until we repent:

“Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. “I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me” says the Lord…. “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord. “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth—the Lord God of hosts is His name (Amos 4:6–9, 11–13).

Think it will not happen? Think it cannot happen? Think again! God is not playing games. As a loving Father, He will get our attention!

CHAPTER 7
THERE IS GOOD NEWS!

The prophecies we have reviewed may sound as though they come from an angry, vengeful God. Angry, yes, but God’s anger is not as ours. All parents understand the natural anger they feel when they see their child doing something harmful. We all want the best for our children. That is a given, and God is described as our heavenly Father. He, too, wants the best for us. He sees us beating and killing one another. He sees us divorcing our wives or husbands and leaving children in tears and confusion. He sees people so confused about how they were created that they commit suicide. He sees our self-inflicted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and diseases resulting from obesity, lack of exercise, and poor diet. He sees nations, states, provinces, and cities turning to violence, fraud, and oppression. Rejecting God’s way of love, goodness, and truth will bring upon our peoples consequences and punishment, including the devastation wrought by the unmerciful forces of nature (Deuteronomy 28; Leviticus 26).

God’s purpose is to show us that “going it alone” is not going well at all. Once He steps in at the end of this age, in ways our minds cannot now comprehend, using the forces of nature He created, He will have our attention. Once we repent and start looking to Him in earnest, the good news will begin. Instead of being our enemy, the forces of nature will cooperate with humanity. “The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing…. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes” (Isaiah 35:1–2, 6–7).

Ezekiel gave a prophecy from God specifically for the house of Israel. This prophecy addresses not the Jews, but the additional peoples that have descended from ancient Israel—the so-called “lost tribes of Israel”—and it concerns a time yet ahead, when God says through His prophet that He will even transform human nature itself.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.… The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden” (Ezekiel 36:26–30, 34–35).

Bible prophecy describes the time when rain will come in due season and the forces of nature will work on our behalf. “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it’” (Amos 9:13).

Our Creator is a God of love. He cares for each one of us. He cares for every human being ever born. He even knows when a sparrow falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29). His plan for you is far greater than you can imagine. (To learn about that wonderful plan, order a copy of our free booklet, Your Ultimate Destiny.)

God had a purpose in creating these forces that are out of our control. They serve to bring us back to Him when we forget what is important:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.… Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:5–8, 11).

YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHOICE

We have seen that while mankind may play a small role in what happens on the earth, the only one in total control is the One who created all things. We have also seen that He created this planet beautiful and varied, but also capable of violent disturbances, and He did so to remind us of our need for His guidance and protection. So now we come to the crux of the matter. What are you going to do about it?

Will you wait until the next storm to cry out to Him? Have you sought Him when past disasters swirled around you? Did you follow through on your promise to Him, or did you quickly forget?

God has an incredible plan for mankind, but it involves our putting Him first. He demands this not because He needs our worship, but because we need Him. He knows that. He knows that our ways will never work, but that His ways will bring us everything that we truly need and yearn for.

We can wait until the next earthquake or tornado, or we can get serious about the purpose of life right now. You may think, “I’m okay. I gave my heart to the Lord long ago.” Don’t be too sure. The first warning Jesus gave regarding His return was to beware of false Christianity (Matthew 24:3–5). Paul gave a similar warning in 2 Corinthians 11:1–4, 13–14. Frankly, dear reader, while many professing Christians think they are on safe ground, they are standing over a figurative sinkhole that will collapse beneath them.

Life is serious. Life is short. You only have a few years on this earth to develop a close relationship with your Creator. Following the crowd and traditions handed down to you by family and friends is a very bad strategy. You need to know what God expects. Our publication Restoring Original Christianity is an eye-opening exposé that reveals how Satan, the god of this world and the Great Destroyer, has deceived the whole world, even the “Christian world” (Revelation 12:9). If you want to learn about the Christianity of Christ and His apostles, order your free copy. You will find the contact information at the back of this booklet, or find it at TomorrowsWorld.org. Don’t wait for the next natural disaster that may be coming soon to where you live!

Booklet Category

Prophecy

The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?

4uwzvo — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 21:30:19 +0000

The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like? 4uwzvo Tue, 03/01/2022 - 21:30

The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?

Roderick C. Meredith (1930-2017)

Booklet Media

#Kingdom of God

#Prophecy

God’s government is coming to this earth soon! How will it affect you? What is the real future for which you should be preparing?

Many eminent politicians and leaders have long realized that the only genuine solution to our massive human problems is a world government. Only this kind of government can bring real peace and stability! But mankind’s human efforts in bringing about such government have always failed miserably. The heralded League of Nations founded after World War I did not stop World War II—the most horrifying war in human history—from exterminating about 50 million human beings! The United Nations, founded after World War II, has also failed utterly to bring peace. Literally scores of wars have been raging all over this world in the last few decades, seemingly unaffected—one way or the other—by the so-called “United” Nations! And mankind’s puny efforts will continue to fail. For humanity does not know the “way” to peace. To any thinking human being, this should become increasingly evident.

Seeing how human religions have failed to solve man’s problems, most educated people in our day have given up on believing in a real God. That is understandable—for mankind has turned away from true religion. Most religions of this world teach and act in a manner totally contrary to the truth revealed in the Bible. However, those who are willing to understand can know that there is a real God. There is a great Creator and Governor of the universe, and He is working out a supreme purpose here below. You, personally, can understand that purpose—if you are willing.

In the New Testament of the Holy Bible, God inspired the Apostle Peter to write, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19, KJV). If you are willing to face the facts of history, you can prove to yourself that the God of the Bible has intervened—again and again—in guiding the major events of human history. For He is a real Spirit Personality, guiding the rise and fall of nations and empires. King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon was one of the most powerful monarchs in human history, yet God literally drove him insane in order to teach him—and us—a supreme lesson. Why did God do this? He explains: “This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:17).

Indeed, God does intervene—when He chooses—to direct human affairs in order to fulfill His ultimate purpose. And the overall conditions He seeks to direct are prophesied throughout the Bible—the inspired word of God. Most “mainstream” Christian churches utterly fail to understand this. They simply talk about a “sweet Jesus” who is apparently disconnected from world affairs and from the rise and fall of nations. Yet, in His inspired word, God tells us, “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). For God inspired the Bible through Jesus Christ—and more than one-fourth of the entire Bible is prophecy!

So, we need to understand! As the nations and human institutions around us begin to come apart, as many of our hopes and dreams in this human society begin to come crashing down, we need to focus on the only real answer—the very real God of the Bible! For He will intervene—within the lifetimes of most of you reading this booklet! He will bring about a magnificent new world—Tomorrow’s World—an entire new society based on love, joy and peace. If you really study your Bible, you will again and again find this fact revealed and explained. Notice how the inspired Apostle Peter, in one of his earliest sermons, tells us that God will “send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20–21).

In the pages of this booklet, you will read about those soon-coming “times of restoration,” when our Creator will intervene to save humanity from its own foolishness! He will literally save us from destroying ourselves (Matthew 24:22)!

The True Jesus Christ WILL Intervene

In Revelation 11:15, your Bible records the most tremendous event in earth’s history. Here, the last of the seven trumpets of Revelation is sounded, and voices in heaven proclaim: “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.”

Yes, the living Christ will soon take over the governments of our war-torn world! At first, the nations of this earth may resist His perfect government. But Christ will return in all the power of God to enforce peace on this earth, “And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron” (Revelation 19:15). Christ will return as Supreme Ruler over all the other governors and kings of this earth, who will be subservient to Him. “And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (v. 16).

Hundreds of years before Jesus Christ’s human birth, God inspired the prophet Isaiah to record a prophecy about what His job would eventually be. “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever” (Isaiah 9:6–7).

Notice that Christ is called the “Prince of Peace.” That is because He alone has the power to really bring peace! God also says: “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” With Christ as world Ruler, mankind will recover from the terrible devastation that preceded His coming. Human beings will multiply and replenish the earth, and the laws and ways of God’s government will spread around the globe.

As the people gradually learn to obey the Ten Commandments and all the laws of God, there will be an actual “increase” in peace on this earth. Peace, happiness and joy will continue to increase between nations and individuals, as they learn more and more to obey God’s ways and perfect laws, which are the only way to peace.

Organization of God’s Kingdom

The form and organization of God’s government on this earth is already prophesied in your Bible!

As we saw in Revelation 11:15, Christ will be King over all the nations of this earth. He will occupy a definite throne upon the earth when He returns. Before His human birth, an angel prophesied: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32–33).

Who will rule under Christ? God certainly trained Abraham for a top position of high responsibility in the world ahead. Scripture calls Abraham “the heir of the world” (Romans 4:13). Yes, God will reward Abraham for his faith by giving him a position of service over the whole earth!

In Ezekiel 37:15–28, God shows that He will reunite Israel and Judah. Regarding these two nations, He says: “And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again” (v. 22).

Christ will rule in an especially direct way over the nations of Israel, because His headquarters will be at Jerusalem. Notice how Scripture describes specifically His rule over the “house of Jacob.” God called that house, also known as the house of Israel, to be His chosen people and a light to the rest of the world. They were chosen not as favorites, but as people with a job to perform—which they have utterly failed to accomplish. During the coming thousand-year reign of Christ, the house of Israel will be reunited with the house of Judah, and together they will be the chief nation of the earth, under Christ, to help set the example and carry out His government to all the earth.

Under Christ as King of kings, the resurrected King David will rule directly over the united house of Israel. “David my servant shall be king over them’ and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes and do them” (v. 24).

Under Christ and David, Israel will again learn the way to peace—the Israelites will learn to do and obey God’s statutes and judgments!

Rulers Under David

Under David, each tribe of Israel will have its own individual governor—one of the twelve apostles. Jesus Himself designated them for this office before He died: “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28–30).

We can surmise that Daniel—the man whom God led King Nebuchadnezzar to appoint “ruler over the whole province of Babylon” (Daniel 2:48)—will be given a position of rule over the Gentile nations in the Millennium. In fact, he may be given a very high position, similar to that of David, since God used him to help rule over the greatest Gentile kingdom in earth’s history—the “head of gold” (v. 38).

Those Christians who grow in grace and knowledge in this life will, in the Millennium, be given positions of rule under Christ. “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—’He shall rule them with a rod of iron'” (Revelation 2:26–27). And we find that Christ has “made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10).

Jesus gave the “parable of the minas” to show Christians that in this life we must overcome our human nature, makegood use of our time and talents according to God’s laws, and prepare for a position of rule and responsibility in the soon-coming government of God on this earth. Notice Jesus’ statement to the man who overcame most and gained ten minas: “Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities” (Luke 19:17). To the man who was zealous enough to gain five minas, Jesus said: “You also be over five cities” (v. 19).

True Christians are called to serve, under Christ, in ruling this world! Why is that message not preached in all the churches today?

Millennial Government

Even the well-known secular historian, Edward Gibbon, acknowledged in chapter 15 of his famous The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that the early Christians believed in God’s coming world government:

“The ancient and popular doctrine of the millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed as six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labor and contention which was now almost elapsed would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with a triumphant band of the saints and the elect that escaped death; or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth until the time appointed for the last and general resurrection.”

Yes, the early Christians understood the purpose of God and the reason that He is calling some people out of this present society into His Church—to prepare for “Tomorrow’s World!”

True Christians should learn to obey and live by God’s laws and ways now so that they will be able to teach and train others to live the way of peace during the soon-coming Millennium when the Kingdom or Government of God will hold sway over this earth!

Here is a specific example of how God’s government will rule the nation Israel, which will be under that government during the Millennium. Remember—as most of our readers know—when the Bible uses the term “Israel,” or “House of Israel,” it is usually referring either to the ten tribes of the “Northern Kingdom” or to all twelve tribes—among whose modern descendants, Scripture shows us, are the peoples of the United States, Britain and the British-descended peoples, and the nations of northwestern Europe. This distinction is vital if one is to understand end-time prophecy. And, you can prove those national identities to yourself if you request and study our truly eye-opening booklet, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy. It will be sent absolutely free upon your request. In the Millennium, God the Father will continue to be the overall supreme Governor and Ruler of the universe. Under Him is Jesus Christ, who will come to rule this earth within a few short years as King of kings.

Under Christ, King David will be resurrected from the dead, made immortal and placed in charge over the entire reunited House of Israel. Under David, each of Jesus’ twelve apostles will be king over one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

In each tribe, under one of them, will be some of the saints who have overcome in the here and now, and have learned to submit to God to carry out His government. As seen from the parable of the minas, some will be governors over territories including several cities. Some may occupy an office similar to that of mayor under these governors.

Other Spirit-born saints will have jobs to do. No matter what their particular office, the attitude will be that of David: “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10). There will be no sadness or regret or envy. All will be serving to the fullness of their capacity, and will be experiencing total joy in their service.

Under the Kingdom or Government of God, composed of Christ and the Spirit-born saints, will be human leaders who will help guide the physical peoples of Israel. Scripture prophesies in many places that these peoples will have endured an end-time captivity, and that in the Millennium they will have been regathered in their ancient homeland in and around Jerusalem. There, they will all be instructed in God’s laws—which alone bring peace.

“Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3).

Even though they will be taught God’s laws, many people will at first have to be forced to obey them! “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (v. 4).

Israel Was BLESSED Under God’s Government

God’s dealings with ancient Israel often illustrate the pattern of how He will in the future deal with all nations. Many Old Testament prophecies concerning the Millennium have particular reference to Israel. Yet, since God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), this is only an example—a “type”—of what God will do, in principle, for all nations as they serve and obey Christ.

Foretelling the final regathering of the United States, Britain and the other modern descendants of ancient Israel, God says: “‘I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,’ says the Lord your God” (Amos 9:14–15).

The fulfillment of this prophecy is yet in the future, for God says Israel shall “no more” be pulled out of its land at this time. This is describing the great physical blessings God will shower upon His people of Israel—including the United States, the British-descended peoples and the peoples of northwestern Europe—when, after Christ’s return, He will bring them back from their future prophesied captivity and they will return to their ancestral lands in the Middle East.

Future prophesied captivity? In a passage written more than a hundred years after ancient Israel was taken into captivity, God prophesied through Jeremiah that there will be a future captivity of Israel, but that after this captivity the peoples of Israel would be restored back to their ancient homeland, in and around Jerusalem, after Christ’s return (Jeremiah 30:1–11). Study this prophecy carefully! Notice that it predicts a coming punishment and restoration of both “Israel and Judah” (v. 4). This is a time of national punishment and captivity for the United States and the British-descended nations, just before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

“‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke [the yoke of our captivity] from your neck, and will burst your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them'” (vv. 8–9). At Christ’s coming, Israel will be delivered from its captivity. David and all the saints will be resurrected from the dead to take their places as kings and priests in God’s government to rule this earth under Christ.

“‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord, ‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid'” (v. 10). At last peace shall come to this war-torn world—and the entire “House of Israel” shall no more be made afraid by any nation!

JOY Under God’s Government

Referring to the entire prophecy, God says: “In the latter days you will consider it” (v. 24). Jeremiah 31 continues with the same prophecy (v. 1), and God tells of His blessings to Israel at that time: “Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food” (Jeremiah 31:4–5).

Dancing, singing, happiness and joy will overflow in abundance. Israel will rejoice in being blessed by God after Christ brings the Israelites back to the Holy Land, where they will be the “chief nation” of the world and will set the pattern for all nations under His government.

After their national punishment and captivity, Israelites will come back repentant and contrite. “They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them” (v. 9).

But as they return, God will begin to bless them in every possible way—spiritually and physically. “Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the Lord—for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together; for I will turn their mourning to joy, will comfort them, and make them rejoice rather than sorrow” (vv. 12–13).

Through obedience to God’s ways, there will be an abundance of good things to eat and drink—and there will be overflowing happiness in the human heart at last!

All serious Bible students are familiar with Isaiah 11 as a description of Christ’s coming thousand-year reign on earth. Here, Christ is described as the “branch” or offspring of Jesse. He will be the perfect world ruler, fully using God’s Spirit. Scripture tells us: “He shall not judge by the sight of his eyes” (v. 3)—rather, He will be able to read the thoughts and hearts of human beings everywhere. He will judge the poor and downtrodden “with righteousness” and will punish the wicked with the death penalty, which will put fear into the hearts of those plotting evil (v. 4).

After Christ’s return, the wild and vicious nature shall be removed even from the wild animals. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (v. 6). Even the snakes will be tame: “The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den” (v. 8).

Most important of all, human beings everywhere will at last learn God’s ways, which alone can bring peace. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (v. 9).

This is the wonderful time spoken of by the inspired Apostle Peter as “the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Indeed, God has described this blessed reign of Jesus Christ on earth in literally scores of prophecies throughout your Bible.

This was—and is—the message of Jesus Christ! This is the only real way to find true peace!

Conditions During the Millennium

Some of the survivors from the earth’s previous age will be from nations that had spoiled the nations of Israel. To humble them and teach His ways more fully, God will engage some of those people as Israel’s servants in the Holy Land in the early years of the Millennium. “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land [Jerusalem and the surrounding territory]. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors” (Isaiah 14:1–2).

As Lord of lords, Christ will begin to convert and save the entire world during His reign. To do this He will need to strip aside the blindness that has come on all people of the earth as a result of Satan’s deceptions (Revelation 12:9).

Isaiah writes: “And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever…” (Isaiah 25:7–8).

All peoples will then come to know God. Their blindness and religious confusion will be removed and all who are willing will finally be converted.

The resurrected saints will teach God’s way—and God will bless the people as they obey. “For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:19–21).

It will be a startling experience for some to have a voice behind them suddenly boom out and warn them not to break one of God’s commandments! Yes, the saints of God—having been born of the Spirit at the resurrection, and thus having become spirit—will be able to choose to be invisible or visible at will.

There will be no “cheating” on God’s law!

Within a few years, as people all over the earth come into contact with Almighty God, He will supernaturally heal millions who had been deaf, blind or mute! “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:5–6).

Notice that not only the people, but the land shall be healed and the earth shall receive proper rainfall again with God’s blessing. “The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water” (v. 7).

And it shall be a time of singing, and happiness and joy. “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (v. 10).

The WAY to Blessings

The world could have peace and happiness now, but it refuses to have it God’s way. The Apostle Paul was describing all humanity—Israelites and Gentiles alike—when God inspired him to write: “Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known” (Romans 3:16–17).

The reason the world cannot have peace is because it refuses to obey the commandments of God as a way of life! As we have seen, when Christ comes to set up His government, the “law” of God shall go forth from Zion and the “word of the Lord” from Jerusalem.

Those who yield themselves most to obey all of God’s commandments now will be best qualified for the highest positions in God’s government during the coming millennial reign of Christ. For He said, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

This is because Christ will establish peace in His Kingdom—and all lawbreakers will be kept outside! Yes, we will peace and prosperity when everyone learns to obey God’s commandments! Then the world will be blessed with physical abundance. The sick and the crippled will be healed. The spiritually blinded millions will come to reallyknow God!

The human beings on earth under God’s government during Christ’s millennial reign are pictured as learning to sing and dance and shout for joy at the wonderful way of life they will experience under the perfect government of God!

As we have seen, even the nature of wild animals will be turned to love instead of hate and selfishness. At last, people will learn that it really is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). All their frustrations and guilt complexes will at last disappear. Then they will come to know “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

Under God’s government and His perfect laws, people will learn that Jesus meant business when He said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

This is what the happy, joyous Millennium will be like!

How and Why This World Jumped “Off the Track!”

Now, let us review why our war-torn world is the way it is, and why and how the Millennium will be so much better!

Very few people fully grasp that this is definitely not God’s world. When I grew up in a “mainstream” church, I was taught in Sunday school to sing, “This is my Father’s world.” However, if we will let God’s inspired word tell us the Truth, we will find an entirely different explanation! For God inspired the Apostle John to describe Satan the Devil being cast back to this earth in Revelation 12:9, “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Do you, personally, believe that the “whole world” is deceived, as the Bible clearly explains again and again? It is vital that you prove this to yourself by studying this topic in God’s word. For it is stated in many different ways. If we are to believe the Bible, we must come to know that this is indeed a deceived world under the direct influence of Satan the Devil. For Satan is called the “god” of this world.

Notice: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). So Satan is the invisible spirit being who, in fact, is the “god” over the nations of the earth in this age—this particular 6,000-year period leading up to Christ’s Second Coming as King of kings. The great God, the Creator, has allowed this to happen to “test” human beings and also to help us learn through human suffering that man’s ways will not bring the desired result. Then, when Christ intervenes, mankind can more fully appreciate how wonderful God’s ways are by comparison!

However, during this present age, Satan the Devil is “broadcasting” wrong attitudes and he influences people to take wrong actions continually. The Apostle Paul reminded the Christians of Ephesus that they had “once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). So, Satan the Devil is busy. He “works” continually—turning mankind away from God and God’s true ways. He is the source of much of the suffering and evil—the wars, rapes, tortures and various other abominations occurring in today’s world.

God makes it clear that in the Millennium, Satan will be banished. God describes in the book of Revelation how—after Christ’s return—He will send a great angel to deal with Satan, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:1–3).

It is clear from the above passage that Satan has been the one to “deceive the nations.” In order for the world to have genuine peace and joy, he must be “bound” for the entire thousand years of Christ’s rule over the earth (Revelation 20:1–3). So this will be done!

Then, after the Millennium, he will be loosed for a comparatively short period of time (Revelation 20:7–8). At that point, it is amazing to see how quickly, apparently, Satan will be able to “deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth!” Human beings, it seems, are very susceptible to being led away by Satan and his demons and also wrongly influenced through his false ministers. For genuine peace and joy to be restored during Christ’s rule, Satan and all his demons must be put away!

The TRUTH Must Be Restored

The Apostle Paul warned the Christians of his day: “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:29–31).

For your own sake, please consider whether you are truly following the “whole counsel of God,” to which Paul had just referred (v. 27)! Certainly most of you may understand part of the Bible, part of Christ’s true teachings—and perhaps a little bit regarding prophecy and the awesome purpose for which God created you. However, just “accepting Jesus,” joining some church down the street, and hoping to “float off to heaven” when you die is not what true Christianity is all about! Most who call themselves “Christians” have never been taught the full purpose of human existence! It is vital that you come to fully understand and follow the “whole counsel” of Almighty God (Job 15:8; Acts 20:27).

We have just read Paul’s warning that “savage wolves” would come in and “draw away” many from the Truth of God. Paul also urgently warned God’s people about a great “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:1–12). He wrote: “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (vv. 7–8).

What did Paul mean by “lawlessness”? Was Paul describing mere human laws being violated? No! Paul was obviously referring to something more than “traffic laws” being violated. Paul was describing a religious system—the “mystery of lawlessness“—that was slowly but surely taking over the name of Christianity, perverting Christ’s teachings and practices, convincing people to abandon God’s great spiritual law!

Nearly all respected historians know that a massive change came over the professing Christian church within a century after Christ and the original apostles died. One historian writes: “For fifty years after St. Paul’s life a curtain hangs over the church, through which we strive vainly to look; and when at last it rises, about 120ad with the writings of the earliest church-fathers, we find a church in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter and St. Paul” (Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, The Story of the Christian Church, p. 41).

On whose authority did the early bishops make these drastic changes? Did God or Jesus Christ tell them to make His Church very different from the original Church known to Christ and the apostles?

No way!

Rather, even after His death, Jesus told the apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age…” (Matthew 28:19–20).

On whose authority did the so-called “church fathers” do away with—and virtually destroy for their followers—the teachings of Jesus Christ and the original apostles? The real answer is that they had no such authority! That is why God inspired the Apostle Jude to exhort true Christians: “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude vv. 3–4, NASB).

Jude tells us that we will literally need to “contend”—fight—for the “faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” He warns about certain men who “crept in” to turn the concept of grace into “licentiousness”—into a license for deceived people to think that they can disobey God’s great spiritual law and still somehow enter the Kingdom of God!

This, my friends, is exactly what most “mainstream” Christians believe today. Many churches talk about the Ten Commandments as a good “general guideline.” But if you pin them down, the vast majority of mainstream ministers will say that a Christian is not bound to keep the Ten Commandments as a way of life! This is one reason why God inspired Jude to exhort us to contend for the true faith which was “once for all delivered to the saints.”

RESTORE True Christianity!

What would it mean to restore the original Christianity of Christ and the apostles? What differences would we find if the “original Christianity” of the New Testament was genuinely taught and practiced once again?

Wow! This restoration would involve far more than most of you probably realize! Because, as historian Hurlbut acknowledges, by 120ad we find a professing Christian church “in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter and St. Paul.”

Respected historian Will Durant wrote, “Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. The Greek mind, dying, came to a transmigrated life in the theology and liturgy of the Church; the Greek language, having reigned for centuries over philosophy, became the vehicle of Christian literature and ritual; the Greek mysteries passed down into the impressive mystery of the Mass. Other pagan cultures contributed to the syncretist result. From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity… and a personal immortality of reward and punishment; from Egypt the adoration of the Mother and Child, and the mystic theosophy that made Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and obscured the Christian creed…” (The Story of Civilization, Vol. 5, Durant, pp. 595, 599).

For hundreds of years during the Dark Ages, the genuine Christianity of Christ and the apostles was indeed “obscured.” Men wrongly taught, in Jesus’ name, a totally different way of life and approach to God. False teachers replaced the original Holy Days—commanded by God, and observed by Christ and the apostles—with pagan days and worldly concepts. As historian Jesse Lyman Hurlbut wrote: “The forms and ceremonies of paganism gradually crept into the worship. Some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals with change of name and of worship. About 405ad images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches, at first as memorials, then in succession revered, adored, and worshipped” (The Story of the Christian Church, p. 73).

At that time, false believers presenting themselves as “Christians” gradually introduced “heathen feasts” such as Christmas, Easter and All Saints Day into the professing Christian church. But what about the fourth commandment of Almighty God? What about the commanded weekly day of rest and worship? “As long as the church was mainly Jewish, the Hebrew Sabbath was kept; but as it became increasingly Gentile the first day gradually took the place of the seventh day” (ibid., p. 45).

Was this God’s idea? Did God gradually change His divine law so His worshipers could honor the “day of the sun”—Sunday—as the pagans had done for centuries?

No way!

As scores of authorities acknowledge, the early true Christians—Gentiles and Jews alike—all worshiped on the seventh-day Sabbath. Historians agree that this continued for at least a generation or two after the deaths of the Twelve Apostles! God did not change His law. The Apostle Paul instructed Christians: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). The Apostle John observed: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).

These two apostles, like all the others, knew that Jesus Christ came to show the perfect example, and that Christian sought to follow His example, strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This was the commonplace understanding in the Apostle Paul’s day, as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire. Historians acknowledge this fact, as the following meaningful quotation reminds us:

“Everywhere, especially in the East of the Roman Empire, there would be Jewish Christians whose outward way of life would not be markedly different from that of the Jews. They took for granted that the gospel was continuous with [the religion of Moses]; for them the New Covenant, which Jesus had set up at the Last Supper with His disciples… did not mean that the covenant made between God and Israel was no longer in force. They still observed the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles… the weekly Sabbath and the Mosaic regulations concerning food. According to some scholars, they must have been so strong that right up to the fall of Jerusalem in ad70 they were the dominant element in the Christian movement (Judeo-christianisme, “Paul and Jewish Christianity,” Davies, 1972, p. 72, quoted in Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, p. 151).

So, for about the first 40 years after Christ’s resurrection, the true Church of God—keeping God’s weekly and annual Sabbaths—was the “dominant element” among those who called themselves “Christians.” True Christians were still following the example set by the Jerusalem Church of God!

Who dared to change all of that?

What Was Original Christianity Like?

The inspired Apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders, “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:27–28).

If one could have looked in on the “church of God which is at Corinth”—as Paul addressed the Corinthian Christians—what way of life would one have observed among these Gentile Christians? What laws of God and biblical teachings would stand out as being different from mainstream “Christianity” as it is practiced today?

First, even to be present with the early Christians when they met, one would need to grasp the vital importance of obeying each of the Ten Commandments—including the Fourth Commandment. For the Fourth Commandment states, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates” (Exodus 20:8–10).

This commandment, above all others, reminds the believer that the true God is the Creator. God made the seventh day “holy time”—not Sunday, which is the first day of the week. He did this right at the time of creation—long before there were any Jews. For the Sabbath was not made for the Jews! Jesus Christ Himself said, “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). It was made when human beings were made, then later was made part of the codified spiritual law—the Ten Commandments—which God Himself wrote on two tablets of stone (Exodus 34:28).

Worshiping regularly on the seventh day—the day that begins at what we today call Friday at sunset, and continues until sunset on Saturday—the early Christians were always mindful that the true God was the Creator of heaven and earth, who gave the Ten Commandments that reveal the basis of the right way of life! And the early Christians also observed the annual Holy Days—seven annual festivals directly commanded in the Bible. For Christ and the apostles taught Christians to live “by every word of God” (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4)—and the only written word of God then available was what we call the Old Testament.

From the Old Testament book of Zechariah, the early Christians would have read and understood that when the Messiah returns to earth as King of kings, He will direct all nations—Jews and Gentiles alike—to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the seven annual festivals that God commanded His people to observe.

As Zechariah wrote: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16). Then the prophet goes on to tell us that God will shut off the rain from any nation refusing to “keep” the Feast of Tabernacles (v. 17)! This, my friends, will occur during the soon-coming rule of Jesus Christ!

Christ Means Business!

Does it sound as though the genuine Christ of your Bible means business when He commands obedience to God’s Laws? Yes, it does! And, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Are you familiar with that aspect of the biblical Jesus Christ?

Meeting with the original Christians at Corinth, one would also note that they were not observing Easter. Rather, they kept the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, two of God’s commanded annual observances (1 Corinthians 5:6–8). After reminding them that Jesus Christ was sacrificed as our Passover, Paul instructed the Christians at Corinth, “Therefore let us keep the feast” (v. 8). Since Paul’s whole context here involves the Passover and Unleavened Bread, it is obvious that he was exhorting these Gentile Christians to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread—the Feast observed in connection with, and occurring just after, the Passover!

Also, if we met regularly with the early Church of God at Corinth, we would hear one of the elders reading Paul’s first letter to them, in which he wrote, “But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost” (1 Corinthians 16:8). Pentecost? Perhaps you thought that Pentecost was a one-time event when the Church began, when Peter preached to a massive crowd and 3,000 people were converted (Acts 2).

No. Pentecost was also one of the seven annual festivals—listed in Leviticus 23—which the early Christians observed. These festivals point out and help us commemorate the great Plan that God is working out here on earth. Without observing these true biblical Holy Days—which Christ and the early Church observed—most of today’s churchgoers are in total ignorance of the Plan which God is working out among humanity today! We have prepared a well-documented booklet which fully explains these God-given festivals and their meaning, titled The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan. Please write for your free copy.

With all of the above information in mind, it should be obvious that this world has been really messed up by Satan the Devil! This powerful spirit being—the present “god” of this world—has deceived most professing ministers, most teachers and educators, and the vast majority of people on this earth today! God’s word makes that very plain!

Therefore, we can more fully understand why and how this world has jumped “off the track” in so many ways. For its religious system—including scores of false beliefs and concepts about God and His entire Plan of salvation—its educational system, its political system and the entire structure of this world has been perverted by the cunning machinations of Satan the Devil. The modern “system” of this world is called “Babylon” in your Bible. That is why God commands His true saints, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). So we must do just that and realize that there is an urgent need for the “times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken of by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21).

EDUCATION in the World Ahead

Since Satan the Devil has completely confused mankind in its pursuit of religion, it should come as no great surprise that he has also confused and misguided people in their pursuit of education. Jesus Christ said, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:19–20).

The “fruits”—the results—of modern education are all too obvious for one who has eyes to see. Most historians profoundly realize that Germany was the “most educated” nation in the world just prior to World War II. Proportionately, Germany had more men and women with advanced academic and professional degrees than any nation on the face of the earth! But it was the wrong kind of education, which prepared millions of these “educated” people to fall for Adolf Hitler’s lies and to allow their “educated” nation to participate in the torture and extermination of millions of Jews and others!

This education—so often repeated, to an extent, even in our modern society—consists primarily of learning about material things. It almost totally neglects the spiritual aspects of life. It almost totally neglects character development—the teaching of right values, of respect for those in positions of authority, and the very purpose for human life. For indeed the “great educators” in our colleges and institutions of higher learning do not know these values or this purpose even themselves! So how can they possibly be expected to impart this kind of understanding and knowledge to others?

Therefore, the “fruits” of higher education in today’s society all too often involve higher rates of suicide, broken homes, the development of a cynical and agnostic view of God and the Bible, the breakdown of respect for parents, leaders and for others in general. Certainly, a fair degree of technical and materialistic information may have been imparted. But the understanding and values that make life worth living are almost totally neglected!

A New EDUCATIONAL System

When you read the dozens of passages about Christ’s coming government, it is obvious that an entirely different educational system will soon be set up over this entire world! The basis of this educational system will be the true knowledge of God and His way of life! The modern “intelligentsia” of this world may sneer at this. But during the Millennium, teachers will spread genuine knowledge that will bring about peace and joy. Certainly students will be taught the “three R’s”—reading, writing and arithmetic. They will also be taught true science—and we should note that much of “modern science” is correct and extremely helpful. But they will also come to understand that behind this magnificent and intricate creation is the “Supreme Mind”—the God who is the Creator of heaven and earth, and who created us for a purpose. They will learn not only the physical laws that give order to our world, but also the spiritual laws that regulate human happiness and well-being.

It is often more difficult to un-learn untruths and wrong concepts than it is to learn the pure truth in the first place. So it may take a generation or two to help people truly understand the awesome and wonderful ways of God that affect every phase and facet of life. As part of this way of life, people will enjoy the right kind of music, art and literature. There will be no more vile and pornographic scenes in whatever entertainment may be available.

God created us male and female. Notice His first command to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28, KJV). So God is not against sex! Rather He created it as a wonderful and beautiful thing to draw a young man and woman together and to help solidify their relationship in marriage and also, obviously, bring about the begettal of children. For God is a family—and wants the human family to learn lessons of giving, sharing and serving so we can later serve in His Family throughout all eternity. So, during the Millennium, there will be none of the vile emphasis on sex as merely a mechanical thing apart from genuine love and out-flowing concern in marriage. Rather, entire courses may be offered on “How to Have a Happy Marriage,” “How to Rear Children,” “How to Organize a Family Budget,” and similar topics of practical benefit.

You may be thinking, “That sounds old-fashioned.” Maybe it does in our present circumstances. But the result of this pure teaching, pure entertainment and a pure way of life permeating our entire culture will be happy families, happy children and a depth of joy and peace—and even financial prosperity—beyond what humanity has ever before known.

All through our present society, in America and elsewhere, we constantly behold the spectacle of dishonest politicians, businessmen and other leaders. But in the Millennium, there will be no such thing as a “WorldCom scandal” or an “Enron scandal.” People will not be taken advantage of by corrupt leaders in government, business, or our vain and corrupt educational system. Rather, as we have seen, Christ will set up a Kingdom and decide with equity for the benefit of the meek of the earth!

Part of this new teaching will also involve racial relations. For God commanded His people to be fair and equitable to the “stranger” in ancient Israel—and how much more under the New Covenant! God told His people in Israel: “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume” (Leviticus 19:33–35). Racial and ethnic “minorities” will no longer be oppressed by the majority in any part of the world under Christ’s coming government!

True Education Begins At Home

Nearly all authorities acknowledge that education should ultimately begin in the home. Yet far too few parents, today, realize this responsibility or take the time to perform it. As the God of the Bible told His people in ancient Israel, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:6–8).

So the God who gives us life and breath expects parents to teach their children—from infancy—a right way of life. That way is based upon loving and honoring their Creator. It is based upon loving and honoring their parents—which is the fifth of the Ten Commandments. It is based upon teaching human beings how to properly respect every human being made in God’s image. In fact, the entire panorama of “statutes” given in the Old Testament has to do with fairness, equity, kindness and out-flowing concern for human beings. This is realized far too little in today’s world.

One of the major hindrances to parents teaching their children in the home began during World War II. For the first time, countless millions of women began to work outside the home—and, as a whole, many never fully returned to the home! So, the modern mother is often too busy and too exhausted to spend countless hours working with her young sons and daughters—teaching them a right way of life, teaching them basic knowledge of proper speech and arithmetic and general practical values. Often, the money earned by these young working mothers is mostly consumed by extra taxes, extra expenses for wardrobe, travel, childcare and other needs associated with the job. Sovery little or nothing may ultimately be added to the “extra” money available for the family. If there is any “extra,” it is often spent on getting a second television set, a second car and things that frankly do not contribute to the overall good of the family or society in the end. In fact, the time and effort taken away from the tremendous benefit of being a full-time mother does not compare!

Therefore, during the Millennium, women will be truly “liberated” to spend more time at home with their own children. As in the past, and as in many cultures even today, families will be somewhat larger—and, as a result, children will be more balanced as they interact with more siblings under the direct guidance of parents. There will be more “family gardens” where vegetables and fruits are raised. Perhaps more animals will be purchased such as cows, goats and horses so that the children can become aware of where milk actually comes from! It may seem strange to some older folks, but millions of young people today have a hard time relating to the fact that the milk they drink does not come from a factory, but is squirted out of the udder of a cow! I, personally, have experienced younger folks being literally disoriented as they realized where their milk actually came from!

Certainly, all of the above will help children understand that their food and clothing come from the soil, and that the Creator who guides the weather is ultimately involved in everything that we eat and wear and use.

Being cut off from nature—and from practical living such as outlined above—has, in fact, produced millions of disaffected young people to whom human life is cheap, who think teachers and parents are there to be dis-respected and who have no concept of God as the Creator of all that is. These young people, therefore, end up feeling extremely “empty” after a while and it is a fact—as indicated before—that the more highly educated young people in today’s society have the highest rates of suicide!

In spite of the sarcasm and cynicism that may be expressed by modern “educators” regarding teaching the right ways of life outlined above, the “fruits” of modern education speak for themselves.

RESPECT for Teachers

Within the setting of peaceful, semi-rural communities during the Millennium, there will be top-quality teachers. These teachers will be well-compensated and highly respected—totally unlike in today’s perverse society, where teachers often live in near-poverty and face countless obstacles doing their jobs, while school drop-outs can earn millions of dollars for yelling and screaming a kind of “music,” or for jumping around on a playing field or even literally beating up on each other. In the world ahead, mankind’s values will be totally changed. People will produce something worthwhile, and will be properly paid for it!

Under Christ’s coming government, teachers in educational institutions will be of outstanding character. The Bible reveals this approach again and again. Teachers will set examples that students will come to appreciate and want to follow. In the world ahead, teachers will not only be personable; they will share genuine out-flowing concern for their students, sharing their own lives and taking a deep interest in their students’ lives in every helpful way.

Yet they will not just be “social workers” or “babysitters” as is so common today. Teachers in the world ahead will offer a demanding curriculum, and will set high academic standards to give students the genuine sense of satisfaction that comes from succeeding at real work. And since the knowledge they impart will be practical—as well as being taught by highly respected individuals—students will learn to appreciate the challenge as they grow in true knowledge and understanding.

Schools and colleges will no longer be “academic factories” turning out thousands of young people educated only in technical information. Rather, they will be community-based educational institutions designed to further the basic training that has already been given in the home regarding right principles of living, practical knowledge and technical information with the understanding of how to use this knowledge to genuinely further the well-being of the entire world.

During the Millennium, teachers will know that their students are, with only the rarest exceptions, being trained well at home by both parents. So teachers will be confident in playing a role of supplementing what parents have done. There will be close communication and cooperation between parents and teachers, and between teachers and students. Schools and families will mutually support each other in developing well-rounded and competent individuals. For they will live in a society based upon the principles of the Creator, which will bring a depth of peace and prosperity and productiveness beyond anything man has ever known.

Agriculture and Health

During the Millennium, the entire approach to agriculture and health will be vastly changed from the emphasis we see today in many “mega-farmers” and agro-businesses. Today, profits reign supreme, at the expense of food quality and health. But in the world ahead, with the living Jesus Christ directly in charge, farmers will have what the Bible calls the “fear of God” guiding them. They will be willing—even eager—to genuinely serve their fellow human beings in how they produce and distribute agricultural commodities.

This will even involve the way they take care of the soil. In our modern day, mechanization has sped up mankind’s ability to use—and abuse—the earth. Vast acreages of deserts have been turned into productive farmlands. Because of the misuse of our soil, vast areas of the earth are also returning to desert. This will help bring about the coming famines prophesied by Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:7).

Under Christ’s rule, however, farmers will be careful to use natural fertilizers and environmentally friendly techniques to ensure that the soil is not drained of the nutrients which nature provides under optimum circumstances.

In today’s world, the meat we eat is often a “chemical soup” of hormones and drugs designed by scientists to speed the growth of animals and maximize farm profits. But when we feed drugs to our livestock, we end up eating those drugs ourselves. For more than 20 years—from the 1950s through the 1970s—many American farmers put a chemical called stilbestrol in cattle feed to enhance the growth of their animals. This chemical, which in some countries was given to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages, was withdrawn from the market after it was linked to increased risk of cancer—but not until it had put hundreds of millions of people at risk.

Another unhealthy trend among cost-conscious farmers is the feeding of dead animals to live animals. This practice causes disease to spread dangerously throughout herds. One disease found in cattle, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, can spread to human beings as the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (also known as “mad cow disease”) when a person eats meat from a diseased cow.

Why such practices?

As in so many other aspects of modern society, the motive is greed. Our businessmen—and often the authorities who ought to be properly guiding them—are far more interested in making more money or getting a “payoff” than in making sure that the health of their fellow human beings is best protected!

Today, in America, we see vast acreages being set aside to grow corn because some farmers believe they can make more money selling it to produce ethanol. So they let their wheat crops diminish. Now, the cost of a bushel of wheat has skyrocketed, and the world’s supply of wheat to make bread—and other products—is at an all-time low. Yet, the populations in many areas continue to explode, and increasing hundreds of millions of people are subsisting on starvation diets!

Teachers of JOY!

Undergirding everything we have described in this booklet is the inspired realization that the Family of God will be the ultimate teachers in the Millennium. That family will include not only God and Jesus Christ, but also God’s Spirit-born sons and daughters who are now being trained as “teachers” for the Millennium. For the Bible makes it clear that the priests in ancient Israel were—outside of the home—the primary teachers in that society. And your Bible clearly reveals that true Christians, today, are called to be “priests”—or teachers for the Millennium. The inspired song of the saints helps us understand our ultimate goal, “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth'” (Revelation 5:9–10). So we see that the true saints of God will not only be “kings” assisting Christ as King of kings (Revelation 19:16), but teachers as well!

We will be assisting Christ in helping reorganize the entire system of this world’s governments, educational systems, judicial systems, social systems and religious systems! It will be a tremendous opportunity and challenge! All over this earth at Christ’s return, literally hundreds of millions of human beings will come back from various forms of slavery and subjugation. What is predicted for Israel is only a “type” of what will happen to everyone at that time. God’s word states, “They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn…. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the Lord—for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all” (Jeremiah 31:9, 12). Later, God tells His people, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border’” (vv. 16–17).

Still later in this chapter, God reveals the basis for the entire way of life and the joy that will come to the world at that time, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (vv. 31–34).

The Ten Commandments—the magnificent spiritual law which God gave to Abraham and his servants (Genesis 26:5)long before it was codified for Israel—reveal a way of life that will enable all mankind to learn how to love and serve our Creator and have His divine blessing, and how to truly love our fellow human beings—thus attaining an unprecedented depth of peace and joy.

In the New Testament, God revealed through the Apostle John, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6). The “overcomers”—the true saints of God—are called to be “priests” of God and of Christ and will obviously assist Christ in introducing the right way of life to the entire world.

What a magnificent future!

For every human being on earth can look forward to a time when those still living will be directly taught by the Spirit-born sons and daughters of God in a way that is based totally on love and out-flowing concern. It is difficult for many to genuinely believe God’s word. But, for those of us who can, God tells us, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16).

When people are literally “surrounded by love”—when they are constantly protected, guided and encouraged by those who have total out-flowing concern for them, the depth of happiness and the “peace of mind which passes all understanding” will be profound. This is the kind of world God is preparing! This is the kind of rulership the living God wants you and me to learn, in preparation for assisting Jesus Christ in bringing about His Millennial rule.

In the book of Hebrews, God tells us that man was made “a little lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:6–7). The writer then continues, “You have put all things in subjection under his [man’s] feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him” (v. 8). The clear indication is that God intends, ultimately, for human beings to be full sons of God—having total power over the universe under God and Christ.

In His final complete prayer, Jesus requested the Father, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one” (John 17:20–22).

If you read these verses honestly in their context, it is obvious that Christ intended that His faithful saints would become “one” with the Father just as He and the Father are one. So the very genuine future for those who truly surrender and give their lives to God is to share the complete power and glory of the God Family with the Father and Christ throughout all eternity! Together, the true saints will assist Christ in ruling, in teaching—in healing and encouraging—and in blessing the sons and daughters of men all over this earth.

If we “make it,” we will be able to interact on a constant basis not only with Christ and the Father but with the awesome “heroes” of the Bible—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, David, Peter and Paul, Sarah and Ruth, and so many others. As Spirit beings in the actual “Family of God”—composed of His Spirit—we will be able to serve, to create, to plan and to accomplish right along with these magnificent personalities about whom we have read for so many years in God’s word!

For God’s word tells us, we will not have come into a mere physical relationship with God, as at Mount Sinai. “But,” as God states, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:22–23).

In that magnificent future, soon to be established at Christ’s coming, we will be able to fellowship and interact with the greatest leaders of the Bible and many other such faithful servants—the spirits of just men made perfect now and forever!

And in that blessed role we will have the wonderful opportunity to share the very love of God, the wisdom of God and the out-flowing concern of God with those people who live on through the Millennium. May God grant this to be your future! May God help all of us to grasp His truly awesome purpose for our lives! And may God help each of us to “go all out” to do our part in preparing for a place of love and service in the very real world ahead!

Booklet Category

Prophecy

Who or What Is the Antichrist?

4uwzvo — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 14:13:22 +0000

Who or What Is the Antichrist? 4uwzvo Wed, 03/02/2022 - 14:13

Who or What Is the Antichrist?

Roderick C. Meredith (1930-2017)

Booklet Media

#False Christianity

#Paganism

#Prophecy

#Revelation

Can you prove, from the Bible, who or what the prophesied Antichrist really is? This is not some esoteric topic. Your correct understanding may affect whether or not you will be able to fulfill the role that God has planned for you in His kingdom!

Horrifying events are beginning to happen in America and much of the western, professing “Christian” world. The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, and the devastation of the Pentagon in Washington, DC, focused the minds of millions on Bible prophecy. They now wonder: “What is God’s purpose in all of this?”

Indeed, prophesied events are truly speeding up. As Jesus instructed, we all need to “watch and pray.” For—within this generation—truly awful, Satan-inspired tragedies will begin to strike much of humanity. The “Antichrist” will be directly behind many of these events!

After September 11, 2001, many began to wonder: is the sinister Osama bin Laden the prophesied end-time “Antichrist”? A decade earlier, some had suspected that Saddam Hussein was the Antichrist. Before him, suspicion had fallen on Mikhail Gorbachev. Even today, some consider Adolf Hitler the personification of the Antichrist.

Surrounded by these ideas—and this confusion—can we really know? Can it be proved from the Bible who or what the “Antichrist” really is?

Remember, men have all kinds of theories about this subject. Recently, evangelical leader Jerry Falwell opined that the coming Antichrist will probably be Jewish, and that he will be from the tribe of Dan. What Mr. Falwell apparently does not understand is that the Israelitish tribe of Dan split off from Judah—or the “Jews”—thousands of years ago, and is an entirely different people!

Historically, most Protestant theologians of past generations assumed that the pope of Rome was the “Antichrist.” In fact, the primary human founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, declared on August 18, 1520: “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist” (The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2, p. 121).

Later, John Calvin, the founder of what became the Presbyterian church, stated in his Institutes of the Christian Religion: “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt.… I shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.”

Were these professing Christian leaders correct? Or is there another answer? And you may ask: “Who gives you the right to be right? How can you possibly know the truth, when so many of the leaders of professing Christianity are in disagreement?”

In Psalm 111:10, the inspired word of God tells us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.”

Many of you know that we in this Work of Christ do believe in keeping God’s commandments. Therefore, we have been able to tell you, in advance, about most of the major prophetic events that have been occurring. But, as they say, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Prophesied events are moving swiftly! What I will tell you in this booklet can be proven, if you will carefully compare what I write with the Bible and actually study the scriptures to which I will refer. You will soon see that world events— including religious events—will directly follow the pattern that I will describe, so you will soon know who is right on this vital subject!

For investigating this subject of the “Antichrist” is not merely investigating some esoteric topic. The correct understanding of this subject could be absolutely vital to the very survival of you and your family in the years ahead. More importantly, may affect whether or not you will be part of the first resurrection at Christ’s second coming—and fulfill your role in the Kingdom of God!

Probably within this generation, a powerful religious leader will appear on the scene. He will perform awesome signs and wonders. He will be the final personification of what the Bible describes as the “Antichrist.”

Yet, as we shall see, there have been in the past—and are now—many Antichrists! And underlying all of their deceptions is the “spirit of Antichrist”—the wrong approaches and false doctrines which have blinded billions of human beings from understanding God’s Truth. The “doctrine” of Antichrist is not understood by most of the world’s religious leaders.

“How so?” you might ask.

Because there is a very real Satan the Devil. Jesus Christ twice called him the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30). Satan is the great deceiver. The Apostle John made it very clear that Satan deceives the vast majority of mankind: “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:9).

“But I am not deceived!” you might say. Do not be too sure!

For we will now show you, in this booklet, what is undoubtedly the major deception that Satan has palmed off on mainstream Christianity! The widespread deception about the “Antichrist” is only the “tip of the iceberg” of the vast religious deception carried out in the name of “Christianity.” In fact, this deception is so thorough that thousands of professing Christian ministers and priests are themselves deceived and therefore do not even realize that they are perpetuating a lie! Jesus Christ similarly described the false religious leaders of His day: “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14).

HOW MILLIONS HAVE BEEN DECEIVED

This mass deception is so widespread and so believable because many of its tenets “look good” on the surface. Most of its practitioners will say that we must believe in Christ. They will say that Christians should exhibit love, kindness, mercy and patience, and that Christians should “do good” to their fellow man—give to the poor and support hospitals, charities and homes for unwed mothers. They will say that Christians should respond to Jesus’ “law of love.”

All of this sounds biblical. It sounds very good!

But these practitioners do not tell you which of the laws of God are to be kept—and exactly how God’s laws are to be obeyed. These people will talk sentimentally about Christ being the “Lord” of our lives. But they will inevitably fail to explain that if Jesus is “Lord,” we must obey Him! They will never tell you that Jesus directly and consistently taught obedience to all of the Ten Commandments!

Therefore, because of this Satan-inspired deception, many of the bloodiest wars in modern history have been waged between professing “Christian” nations in Europe. Bishops on one side would bless their troops as they prepared for battle. The bishops on the other side did the same. Then thousands of young men—often still in their teens—would rush up some hill to shoot or brutally stab to death other young men who were often of the very same church denomination! All were supposedly “Christian.” All were supposedly of the “body of Christ”—the Church of which Jesus is the living, active Head (Ephesians 1:22–23).

Does reading this make you a little “uncomfortable”? Well, it should! And, more importantly, I hope and pray that it makes you think. Because all too many of us have just grown up in some mainstream church and taken our religious beliefs for granted—simply assuming that all would be well if we just went along with the crowd, blended into this world, and lived reasonably decent and “respectable” lives. That is precisely how most of us have been terribly deceived, as I was in years past—and have unwittingly come to believe in a false gospel, a wrong way of life and a “different” Jesus Christ!

SATAN WANTS YOU TO “MISS THE MARK”

One of the Greek words for “sin” in the New Testament literally means “to miss the mark.” So Satan is content to let you “believe in” God and Christ as long as he can still control you, make you “miss the mark.” His goal is to keep you out of the coming Kingdom of God, which will replace him and his demons—by blinding you to what is really happening! God inspired the Apostle James to write: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19).

Then James explains how the true Christian must not merely believe in God, but must surrender to God’s will and do what He says (vv. 20–23). James writes: “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (v. 24).

“Justified by works?” Yes—along with faith! Read verse 24 for yourself. It should be very clear that true Christianity involves more than just accepting, in faith, Christ’s death—which is a free gift from God—as full payment for our sins. When we accept Christ’s sacrifice, we must also make a literal “covenant with our Creator” to quit sinning in the future—to truly surrender to let Christ live His obedient life in us through the Holy Spirit! For, God’s inspired Word tells us: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4, KJV). So we must repent of sin, repent of breaking God’s spiritual Law, the Ten Commandments. This involves a life of humble obedience—the “works” of keeping God’s laws and commandments.

Let us understand that no one can ever earn salvation—it is God’s gift! The true grace of God leads to the gift of salvation (Ephesians 2:8–10; Romans 6:23). Those willing to obey God (Acts 5:29, 32 ) and who are under true grace will be God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). God’s grace does not eliminate the need for obedience and keeping God’s commandments. The Apostle Paul warned that one could “receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Corinthians 6:1). And while the Apostle Peter exhorted Christians to “rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13), he continues with the expectation that we do so “as obedient children” (v. 14; cf. v. 2).

But when men cleverly misuse “grace”—teaching “cheap grace” without real repentance from sin—it is the very essence of the doctrine of the Antichrist! This false concept has allowed millions of professing Christians to go through life regularly and habitually disobeying the Ten Commandments—yet still assuming they are “good Christians”!

The Apostle Jude was inspired to warn us of this very deception. “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 3–4).

Notice that Jude warns of false teachers using the idea of “grace” as a vehicle for “licentiousness”—license to disobey the very laws of God!

“Oh, my minister would never do that!” you may protest.

I am sorry, my friends, but chances are that he or she will verify what I am saying if you approach your priest or minister directly with this question: “Pastor Jones, does God require true Christians to keep the Ten Commandments?” If you ask the question directly in these words, most ministers will begin to mumble something about being “saved by grace.” Then, they may hastily add that the Ten Commandments are a good moral guide but that “you don’t have to keep them since you are saved by grace.”

If you press on and try to “pin your pastor down” to a straightforward answer on this matter, he may try to skirt the issue or point you to the “new” commandments of Jesus. Or, perhaps, he will finally come right out and say what virtually all mainstream theology actually teaches—the Ten Commandments were either “nailed to the cross” when Christ died or the Apostle Paul somehow “did away” with them! As I will now clearly explain, this is the very “heart” of the doctrine of Antichrist!

How so?

And why is this such a serious matter? Because it creates a “lawless society”—a society cut off from God since the Ten Commandments actually portray His character. God’s awesome purpose involves putting His “divine nature” into us through the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:4). It involves our going through a process of spiritual growth and “overcoming” to reflect the very character of God and be made fit to rule with Christ in His soon-coming Kingdom. Jesus directly states: “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—’He shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the potter’s vessels shall be broken to pieces’—as I also have received from My Father” (Revelation 2:26–27).

A DOCTRINE OF DISOBEDIENCE

The true saints of God are being prepared by Him to replace Satan and his demons in ruling over this earth. For Satan is now the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is now the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).

Yet the Apostle Paul tells us: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:2–3).

Why have you not heard a lot more about this awesome purpose of the true Christian to exercise rulership in the future? Because Satan wants to block this knowledge from reaching human beings so they will be unable to replace him and his demons in ruling this earth. Therefore he, the “father” of lies (John 8:44), has deceived the vast majority of all humanity—including two billion professing Christians—regarding God’s purpose for man and the way to fulfill that purpose!

Among Satan’s deceits, surely none is as great as his system of “counterfeit Christianity”! The Apostles knew this was going to happen. Paul warned: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day [of Christ’s return] will not come unless the falling away [from the Truth] comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.… For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7–8).

Notice that this false religious system is called “the mystery of lawlessness.” Shortly before Christ’s return, it will be headed by a figure called the “man of sin” or the “lawless one.” This man, who will perform “lying wonders” (v. 9) can be found elsewhere in Scripture as the great, miracle-working “false prophet” (Revelation 13:13; 19:20).

But realize that Paul said this false Christianity was “already at work” when he wrote these verses—even as it still is today. The proponents of this lawless system talk about love and about the Lord—but they leave out Christ’s powerful instruction to keep the commandments of God! Yet we know that when the young man came to Jesus asking the way to eternal life, He answered: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). Then Jesus began to name some of the Ten Commandments. And in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us: “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

Pray tell, who claims the authority to “do away” with this clear teaching of Jesus Christ? Does your minister, your church?

Again, Paul warned the Christians of his day: “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted; you may well put up with it” (2 Corinthians 11:4)! Unwittingly, to be sure, most of us have grown up hearing about “another Jesus,” a “different spirit” and, very definitely, a “different gospel” than the one Jesus and the Apostles preached!

Again, why?

Because Satan has employed every stratagem available to get people to believe the “doctrine of the Antichrist“! If you are willing to face reality, if you truly want to fulfill the very purpose for which you were born, you need to understand what that doctrine is and avoid it at all cost!

Jesus Himself warned us: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4–5). Note that it is the “many” who will be deceived. And how? They will be deceived because these “many” false teachers come “in Jesus’ name.” Get that! They use Jesus’ own name to deceive people! They come as “Christian” preachers and teachers—but their message is obviously contrary to the message Jesus Himself preached.

Because “Christian” is stamped on the outside of the package, most people unthinkingly assume that Christ must approve of the inside of the package! But these deceived people fail to really study their Bibles. They fail to “prove all things” as God commands, so they are easily deceived by a false “Christianity” based upon the doctrine of “Antichrist.”

The word “Antichrist” is first introduced in 1 John 2:18: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.” First of all, we see “the Antichrist” about whom they had heard. This, of course, is the “lawless one” Paul wrote about and the “false prophet” of Revelation. Yet some mistakenly identify the Antichrist as the coming world dictator and political system called the “Beast” in Bible prophecy. They forget that the real “power behind the throne” is the mysterious “harlot” of Revelation 17, and that this fallen woman “rides” or controls the Beast of Revelation.

THE HARLOT OF REVELATION 17

Millions of people—and even many theologians—are puzzled by the mysterious “harlot” of Revelation 17. Yet the Word of God devotes most of an entire chapter, plus many references elsewhere, to this vital topic. Who is this “harlot”—and how does she relate to the Antichrist?

Whoever this great “harlot” is, she is very powerful. She has caused the deaths of untold millions in the past, and millions more will die at her hand in the future. She is destined to dramatically change the lives of all those living in the end times—including many of you who read this booklet! This harlot sits astride a system encompassing many nations and peoples: “And he said to me, ‘The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues'” (Revelation 17:15). This harlot continues to exist right up to the Second Coming of Christ! For God’s Word describes the “ten horns” or ten kings (v. 12) which will arise at that time: “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful…. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (vv. 14, 16).

Modern theologians and Bible commentaries try to be “politically correct” in their references to this great harlot. For instance, notice this comment from the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 12, pp. 553–554: “In an important sense, the interpretation of this chapter controls the interpretation of the whole Book of Revelation. For a majority of exegetes, Babylon represents the city of Rome. The beast stands for the Roman Empire as a whole, with its subject provinces and peoples. The seven hills (v. 9) are the seven selected dynasties of Roman emperors from Augustus to Domitian. The ten kings are heads of lesser and restless states, eager to escape their enslavement to the colonizing power. John’s prediction of the fall of Babylon is his announcement of the impending dissolution of the Roman Empire in all its aspects.”

While the commentators correctly identify Babylon with the city of Rome, they generalize that “early Christian readers would understand that whenever they were threatened with death by any temporal power… they were in reality facing the bloodthirsty mother prostitute God was about to judge and destroy once for all” (p. 557).

Yet although they correctly understand the identity of “Babylon,” these scholars, like most today, are unable to see that the “woman”—the great harlot—” rides” the Beast (modern Babylon). She is clearly set forth as being distinctly separate from the Beast—the empire with ten final kings giving their power and authority to one super-dictator also called the “Beast.” Obviously, the woman cannot “ride” the Beast and at the same time be the Beast!

Many scholars do realize, however, that the Beast of Revelation 17 is the Roman Empire and its “revivals” in various forms. For a fascinating and thorough explanation of the identity of this “Beast” of Revelation 17, please write for a copy of our booklet entitled The Beast of Revelation. It will be sent to you absolutely free upon your request.

WHO IS THIS “WOMAN”?

Throughout the New Testament, the term “woman” is used as a symbol for a church. For instance, the Apostle Paul writes the Church of God at Corinth: “Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly; and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:1–2). Clearly, the true church is here described as “betrothed” to Jesus Christ—in the position of an engaged woman to her fiancé who is Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 5:23–24, Paul writes: “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” Again, the analogy clearly identifies the true Church as being in the position of a woman—a wife who is submissive to her husband, Christ. And in Revelation 12:1–5, we read the inspired account of the “woman”—this time ancient Israel, the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38, KJV)—being used by God to bring forth the Messiah: “a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”

Verse 5 picks up the story about “the woman”—now the true New Testament Church—fleeing into the wilderness to “a place prepared by God.” The following verses make it even more evident that this “woman” is, in fact, the true Church of God that is protected by God Himself from the wrath of Satan.

So when we come to the “woman” of Revelation 17, it should be very obvious that—letting the Bible interpret its own symbols— this woman is indeed a church! However, this church “sitting on a scarlet beast” (v. 3) is truly a spiritual “harlot.”

For she has entered into adulterous alliances with the leaders and kings of this world (v. 2), and the inhabitants of the earth are made spiritually “drunk” because of her false teachings. She is a “mother” church—giving birth to spiritual “harlots” (v. 5). And, as indicated, she deals in “mysteries,” as did the ancient pagan religions before her.

A PERSECUTING CHURCH

Also, this “woman” is a great persecuting church. The Apostle John was inspired to write: “I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement” (v. 6).

Please think about that.

Who is this great fallen woman—a powerful church—which has and which will again be “drunk with the blood of the saints“? Obviously, she persecutes the true Christians—the true “saints” of God. They are described in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

In contrast to the commandment-keeping Church of God, this great apostate church and her “daughter” churches reject the need to keep the Ten Commandments as a way of life! Somehow, in their spiritual drunkenness, they manage to reason around the plain and clear teachings of Jesus: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).

Historically, do we read about a great church that did persecute millions of people during the Middle Ages? Did such a church actually exist?

In his well-documented book, A Woman Rides the Beast (pp. 243–244), author Dave Hunt describes what the “woman” did for hundreds of years during the Middle Ages:

“Thus Roman Catholicism became ‘the most persecuting faith the world has ever seen… [commanding] the throne to impose the Christian [Catholic] religion on all its subjects. Innocent III murdered far more Christians in one afternoon… than any Roman emperor did in his entire reign.’ Will Durant writes candidly: ‘Compared with the persecution of heresy in Europe from 1227 to 1492, the persecution of Christians by Romans in the first three centuries after Christ was a mild and humane procedure.

Making every allowance required by an historian and permitted to a Christian, we must rank the Inquisition, along with the wars and persecutions of our time, as among the darkest blots on the record of mankind, revealing a ferocity unknown in any beast.'”

So when John saw this “woman” or apostate church “drunk with the blood of the saints,” he was certainly not exaggerating. Even scores of Catholic writers have been mightily embarrassed about what their church practiced for hundreds of years. With the vast record now known—of priests sodomizing young men, of many popes openly maintaining mistresses and fathering illegitimate children all over Italy and high offices in the church being offered and bought for money—it has seemed to many objective historians that this powerful church was the veritable embodiment of evil in nearly every aspect.

DANIEL’S “LITTLE HORN”

The prophet Daniel was inspired to picture this foul religious system as a “little horn.” After the four great ruling kingdoms of the Gentile world—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Alexander’s Greco-Macedonian Empire and finally Rome—Daniel describes a “little horn” coming up among the early resurrections of the Roman Empire: “I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.” (Daniel 7:8).

In verses 25–27 of this same chapter, Daniel is inspired to describe the actions of this pompous “little horn” and how it would continue right up to Christ’s return and His rule over the nations: “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.”

Notice that this “little horn” is different from the pagan empire (v. 24), for it is, in fact, a religious empire! Note also that the human leader of this foul system speaks “pompous words” against God, persecutes the true Christians and intends to change times and law. The Roman Catholic Church has done just that, as Scripture predicted—teaching that the Ten Commandments were subsumed to church authority, and that by its authority it could change God’s commanded seventh-day Sabbath (Exodus 20:8–11; Hebrews 4:9–11), substituting the pagan “day of the sun” in place of God’s Sabbath.

Renowned modern historian Will Durant writes: “The serious temper of the Jewish Sabbath was transferred to the Christian Sunday that replaced it in the second century” (The Story of Civilization, vol. 3, 1972, p. 599). How did this happen? A Roman Catholic study course tells us that “the [Roman] Church transferred the obligation from Saturday to Sunday” (Father Smith Instructs Jackson). The Catholic Mirror agrees: “The Catholic Church… by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday” (September 23, 1893). If you wish further information about the true biblical Sabbath, please write for our powerful and enlightening booklet, Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?

THE PAPACY PREDICTED IN ADVANCE

As we have seen, the “little horn” of Daniel is describing the false church and especially its spokesman, the pope, speaking “pompous words.” In the New Testament, God inspired the Apostle John to describe the “resurrection” of the final Beast, the Roman Empire (Revelation 13:1–10). Then, in verses 11–14, “another beast” is described as rising up, who looks like a “Lamb,” or Christ, but speaks like a “dragon,” Satan the devil (Revelation 12:9). This exceedingly clever and sinister false prophet “exercises all the authority of the first beast [the revived Roman Empire] in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed (Revelation 13:12). In other words, this great false prophet is able to sway most of mankind to stand in awe of and obey the revived Roman Empire!

Then we read: “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived” (vv. 13–14).

As this system developed, a “man of sin” would be revealed—audaciously taking to himself titles and authority that belong only to God. He was to sit as a veritable “god” in the temple of God—using some of the very titles of God. In fact, though Jesus called God “Holy Father,” Roman Catholics call the pope “Most Holy Father” and “Vicar of Christ”—which literally means “in place of Christ”!

Dave Hunt describes the blasphemous pretensions of the papacy:

“The total submission that Rome requires has been expressed by many popes, but none said it more clearly than Nicholas I (858–67):

‘It is evident that the popes can neither be bound nor unbound by any earthly power, nor even by that of the apostle [Peter], if he should return upon the earth; since Constantine the Great has recognized that the pontiffs held the place of God upon earth, the divinity not being able to be judged by any living man. We are, then, infallible, and whatever may be our acts, we are not accountable for them but to ourselves'” (A Woman Rides the Beast, pp. 153–154).

So the popes have claimed that they hold “the place of God on earth”! And what is most frightening is that they continue to make such claims—and even get away with it in our so-called “modern” world. Because the Roman Catholic Church is such an omnipresent and powerful entity, the media usually treads very lightly in attacking even the most outrageous and blasphemous claims of the modern popes and clergy.

But how is all this destined to affect your life?

THE BEAST AND THE WOMAN: TOGETHER AGAIN

Few realize that the so-called “Holy” Roman Empire is being revived right under our noses! Throughout most of continental Europe, there is a great push for full European unity. One of the major players in this geopolitical chess game is—you guessed it!—the pope himself.

In his detailed and revealing book, The Principality and Power of Europe (pp. 36–37), British author Adrian Hilton explains what is now happening:

“While visiting Austria in 1983, the pope spoke out against the national and artificial borders all over Europe. He added:

‘Europeans should overcome the menacing international confrontations of states and alliances, and create a new united Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals.’

In 1988, he continued this theme when he addressed the European parliament in Strasbourg; an occasion at which many asked why a perceived spiritual leader was addressing the issues of political unity. The Sunday Telegraph, in 1991, summed up the pope’s plans for the ‘evangelisation’ of Europe. It stated:

‘He is calmly preparing to assume the mantle which he solemnly believes to be his Divine Right—that of new Holy Roman emperor, reigning from the Urals to the Atlantic.'”

Although the Bible certainly does not indicate that the final pope will be the “emperor” of this revived Holy Roman Empire; it does show that he will be the “power behind the throne.” As God clearly indicates to us, the coming false prophet “causes” those who will not worship this system “to be killed” (Revelation 13:15). So, as many popes did during the Middle Ages, he will use the power of the state—the “Beast”—to force His will on the entire western world!

Remember what happened under Hitler? A knock on the door, the father or mother grabbed and hustled into a van by the state police for saying or doing some “politically incorrect” thing! Do you think that could not happen again? If so, you could not be more wrong!

The God who gives us life and breath clearly describes how, once again, the woman “rides” the Beast. Most people do not realize that the false teachings and practices of this fallen “woman” have permeated the entire world. That is precisely what John was inspired to write: “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:9).

Even sincere Protestants and Evangelicals have unwittingly been made spiritually drunk by the paganism of this system: “The inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:2). What each reader needs to realize is that Satan is the invisible “god” of this present world (2 Corinthians 4:3–4), and that “all nations” are spiritually drunk.

In describing this entire system and the harlot “daughters” that have come out of “mother” Rome, here is what the respected Critical and Experimental Commentary has to say:

“Not merely Rome, but Christendom, as a whole, as Israel, as a whole has become a harlot…. External extensiveness over the world, and internal conformity to it—worldliness in extent and contents—is symbolized by the world-city’s name, ‘Babylon'” (Vol. 6, p. 710).

Ecumenism—Religious Harlotry?

Today’s news is full of articles about the ecumenical movement. One headline reads: “Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Leaders Renew Talks.” Another headline states: “Episcopalian, Lutheran Alliance Forged.” More and more of the Protestant churches are trying to get together, and a number are preparing to come back to “mother”—the Roman Catholic Church. Speaking of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox talks, a July 9, 2000 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune reported:

“Eventually, the churches could resolve even their ancient dispute over the pope’s jurisdiction, said the Rev. Robert Stephanopoulos, dean of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New York and a veteran of ecumenical meetings.

‘It could happen rather quickly in one respect, but when I say rather quickly, we’re still talking against the background of a thousand years,’ he said.”

This recognition of the pope’s authority could happen much more quickly than Robert Stephanopoulos imagines. Just as when the Eastern European nations began to break away from the Soviet Union, world events sometimes seem to occur almost overnight! So additional hundreds of millions of members may be added to the Roman Catholic Church over the next several years as her daughters return to the fold.

And the little Church of God—scattered here and there in little groups—will seem almost like a tiny speck in comparison. Truly, we will all need understanding, faith and courage to make it through the trying years ahead. For Jesus said: “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24).

In the future, we will see increasing pressure brought to bear by the pope and others to make Jerusalem an “international city”—perhaps under the joint control of the Vatican and the United Nations or some other international agency. The relentless pressure of the ecumenical movement will also intensify. The Great Mother Church will be calling with increasing fervor for her daughters to come “home.”

Within the next several years, the “second” Beast of Revelation 13 will appear on the scene. We read of this man in Revelation 13:11–14: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.”

This coming powerful religious leader will look like a “lamb.” In Revelation 14 we see that Christ is described as the “Lamb.” So this coming religious leader will appear to be like Christ! But, John writes, he “spoke like a dragon.” And in Revelation 12:9, John was inspired to write: “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Satan the Devil is clearly identified as the “dragon” right here in the book of Revelation. This coming false prophet, therefore, will appear to billions of human beings to be a Christ-like figure. But his message will be that of Satan the Devil! Yet this charismatic leader will perform “great signs” and even make fire come down from heaven! He is also described in 2 Thessalonians 2 as the “man of sin” who “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (vv. 3–4). This coming religious leader, your Bible says, will be worshiped by his followers!

This man will appear a few years before the Second Coming of Christ, for Christ will “destroy” him “with the brightness of His coming” (v. 8). But this man is called “the lawless one.” In verse 7, Paul writes: “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.” In an age of donkeys and ox carts, Paul is not talking about traffic laws! He is talking about a man and an entire religious system he leads—the “mystery of lawlessness“—which is obviously teaching against and is regularly breaking the laws of God.

As in Revelation 13: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10).

All of us need to realize that we are in a spiritual war. The forces of Satan are moving swiftly to accomplish their goals. Within the next several years, under Satan’s influence, and with the limited powers God allows Satan to exert in this earth’s atmosphere of which he is “prince” (Ephesians 2:2), the devil’s forces will wield unprecedented power through a religio-political system under their control—and will do so in the name of “Christianity.” Very few Protestant, Orthodox or other religious leaders will have the faith and courage to stand up against this onslaught. They will enforce the dreaded “mark of the beast” and bring about a horrifying persecution of the true Christians—the real saints of God.

MANY ANTICHRISTS!

We have seen what the Bible says about “the” Antichrist. But even more importantly, we should note that John was inspired to write that “even now , many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18). So it should be clear that the term “Antichrist” does not apply solely to the false prophet—though he will certainly be the leading spokesman teaching the doctrines of Antichrist. Rather, as most modern scholars acknowledge, “Antichrist” simply means a spirit or person in opposition to Christ.

John continues to describe the many who are “Antichrist,” saying: “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father” (vv. 22–24). Notice that John was inspired to warn Christians to hold on to the original teaching that they had been given—”abide in… [what] you heard from the beginning.” This would mean “abiding in”—or obeying—Jesus Christ’s direct teaching concerning the Law of God.

For, from the beginning, Jesus had taught them to “keep the commandments.” He had continually warned them about using His name and yet disobeying His teaching! Jesus said: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). And again: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21 ).

So we “abide” in Christ and in the Father by obeying God and living as Jesus actually did—by every word of God. Jesus explained: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 14:23–24).

John’s first epistle goes on to describe the “spirit of Antichrist” in greater detail: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (4:1–4).

Obviously, a vital key to understanding the teaching of the Antichrist is to recognize that this false doctrine does not admit the full humanity of Jesus Christ. It does not admit that Christ truly “has come in the flesh.”

“Why?” you might ask. What is so special about Christ having “come in the flesh”?

First, we must understand why Satan is continually trying to deceive people into disobeying God’s law—the Ten Commandments. Such lawbreaking constitutes sin since “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4, KJV). And “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). So if Satan can somehow keep human beings from obeying God—and so yielding to let God build within them His very nature and character—then these disobedient men and women will continue to be under the death penalty. Cut off from God, they will be unable to prepare to be kings and priests in Christ’s coming Kingdom on this earth (cf. Revelation 5:10) and so replace Satan and his demons.

DIABOLICAL ARGUMENTS

So that people will not even try to keep God’s commandments, Satan uses the doctrine of Antichrist to promote the idea that mankind is unable to keep them! The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church—and most Protestant churches—in effect minimize Christ’s humanity, implying in various ways that He was not fully “in the flesh.” Their theology leads to the conclusion that He was not really subject to the “pulls of the flesh” in the same way we are, and was thus not really tempted as we are—indeed even that He was not capable of sin. In their understanding, Christ was not really setting an example for us while fully in the human flesh. Satan wants us to believe that we cannot keep God’s commandments, and that Jesus Christ could not have sinned and broken them!

The Roman Catholic Church takes this idea even further. It falsely teaches that, except for the “Virgin Mary,” all human beings since Adam and Eve have been born with “original sin,” unable to keep God’s commandments. Mary alone, the teaching says, was protected by an “Immaculate Conception” and led a perfect and sinless life that allowed her to become the “Mother of God.” In this teaching, Mary could have sinned but did not, while our Savior did not sin and could not! If this were true, it would make Mary—not Jesus Christ—our actual example of living a sinless human life! What an insult to our true Savior!

Yet the book of Hebrews tells us: “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted” (2:18). And again: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (4:15). Was this through some supernatural power of His own? Was Jesus “fully God” while in the human flesh? The truth is that He was the Personality who had been with the Father from the beginning: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). But later “The Word became flesh” (v. 14).

Many scriptures clearly reveal that, in the flesh, Jesus did not exercise the same unlimited power which He had previously exercised before His incarnation. For instance, the gospel of Mark tells us that when Jesus came to His own home area among skeptical family and neighbors: “Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them” (Mark 6:5). Jesus Himself said: “I can of Myself do nothing” (John 5:30). While in the flesh, Jesus chose not to heal people in a faithless atmosphere.

The fully human Jesus was tempted in “all points” as we are, yet without sin. That being so, it becomes clear that there is a way for us, too, to keep the Ten Commandments while fully in the human flesh! But how? The same way Jesus did! Hebrews further tells us that “in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death… [He] was heard because of His godly fear” (5:7). If Jesus had to literally cry out with tears to the Father to “save Him from death,” it should be obvious that He was truly in the human flesh—and that we also should cry out for God’s help in the same way! So Jesus did set the “example” for us in keeping the Ten Commandments in the human flesh! We have a Savior and High Priest who does fully understand the pulls of human nature with which we must contend. Through His Spirit within us, as we will see, Christ will empower us to overcome temptation and keep the Ten Commandments while fully in the human flesh!

But the doctrine of Antichrist says just the opposite. Although Satan is clever enough not to directly teach people to sin, the Antichrist doctrine nevertheless opens the door for deceived people to regularly break one or more of the commandments of God with impunity—yet still feel that they are somehow “good Christians.”

A UNIVERSAL TEACHING

This clever reasoning—taught in most seminaries all over the world—goes like this: Since God’s law is spiritual and we are only physical, we cannot keep the holy, righteous law of God. So Christ had to keep it for us. Now we just “accept Christ” and His righteousness is somehow “imputed” to us—without any requirement for righteous works.

The above reasoning then relies on a whole series of misunderstandings and perversions of the writings of the Apostle Paul. Misguided theologians somehow put a clever “twist” on literally dozens of verses from Paul’s letters to directly contradict the plain, clear teachings of Jesus Christ, of His closest disciple, John, and of His brother, James. That is one reason for Martin Luther’s famous statement that the book of James was an “epistle of straw.” Luther hated the fact that James directly taught obedience to the Ten Commandments (cf. James 2:8–12).

The Apostle Peter was even inspired to warn us that “Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15–16). Yes, Peter said that men would “twist” Paul’s writings to their own destruction! Peter continues this inspired warning: “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position” (v. 17, NIV).

A warning not to be carried away by the error of “lawless men“? Absolutely. For that is precisely the way Peter knew that deceived men would “twist” Paul’s writings—into an excuse to disobey the spiritual law of God, the Ten Commandments!

Truly, this message needs to be heard now more than ever before. Millions in this deceived world are really confused about religion. They have become either just plain bored by mainstream religion and/or disillusioned by organized religion in general. So some have simply “tuned out.” Yet millions of others have virtually “invented” their own religion! As Newsweek magazine (May 8, 2000) recently reported on today’s teenagers and their beliefs:

“Rather than seek absolute truths in doctrine, they cross denominational boundaries, savvy consumers in the broader marketplace of belief systems. Many describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious. ‘I believe there is a higher power at work in my life, but I do not have a name for it,’ says Amy McKinney, 18. ‘When I pray I do not ask a god to make everything all right. Instead I ask myself to be strong.’ In place of strict adherence to doctrine, many teens embrace a spirit of eclecticism and a suspicion of absolute truths. In a 1999 poll of teenagers by the religious researcher George Barna, more than half agreed with the statement ‘All religious faiths teach equally valid truths.’ Where explorers of the baby boom tried on Zen today, Methodism tomorrow, teens might cobble together bits of several faiths: a little Buddhist meditation or Roman Catholic ritual, whatever mixture appeals at the time.”

“Whatever mixture appeals”? Appalling!

MODERN RELIGIOUS ANARCHY

This total confusion leads, of course, to religious anarchy. But, ominously, it also opens the door to leading these millions of young people to be very susceptible to the mass deceptions that the coming false prophet will perpetrate. When this man arises and begins to show himself “according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9), what are these millions of confused youths going to do?

Being swept along with excitement and also by the mass hysteria that will accompany the satanic signs of the “lawless one” (v. 8), most of these young people will succumb to the enormous pressure to join hands with this coming “revival” and “return to tradition” inspired by Satan. For throughout much of Western Europe and North America, there is indeed a yearning for specific doctrines and guidelines in the field of religion and standards of behavior. Millions of people are sick and tired of the hemming and hawing and equivocating of their ministers and priests. They are beginning to realize that many of these professing religious “leaders” are not absolutely certain about anything!

Many of these religious leaders question the validity of Jesus’ virgin birth, of His miracles, of His resurrection from the dead. They question the real inspiration of the Bible. They question the idea of Jesus’ Second Coming and whether there will truly be a literal Kingdom of God set up on this earth with Christ as King.

Do “all religious leaders teach equally valid truths”—as more than half of the teenagers in Barna’s poll believed?

Is all religion equal? Can you just believe anything and have the same blessing of the Creator God and gain eternal life on your own terms?

The only way to be definitive and truly correct about these matters is to prove to yourself—one way or another—if the Bible is directly inspired by the real God who created the universe! If the Bible is just partially inspired—as so many believe today—then each person can “pick and choose” which part of the Bible he thinks is inspired. Then, using human reasoning, he can go by that part of the Bible, even if it seems to directly contradict other parts of the Bible. Remember that the Christ of the Bible was nothing but “definitive.” Jesus did not “waffle.” He stated: “I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them” (John 10:7–8). And: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber” (v. 1).

Later, Jesus said: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (v. 27). Most of you readers have “heard” Christ’s voice speaking through this Work. You know that we do not evade, denigrate or “mess around” with the words of the Bible. We have proved over and over that God, the Creator, directly inspired the Bible. It is God’s “Instruction Manual” for mankind. It is specific in what it tells us to do.

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

The clearest passage of all explaining Antichrist is found in 2 John 6–7: “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” In this passage, we see first of all how John is inspired to define love: “that we walk according to His commandments.” In context, the “commandments” being spoken of are clearly the commandments of God the Father (cf. v. 4)—not some “new” commandments of Jesus. Even though John wrote in the 90s ad, some 60 years after Christ’s crucifixion and 20 years after Paul’s death, there is not even a hint that God’s commandments were “nailed to the cross” or “done away with” by the Apostle Paul! Then John reminds his readers that the commandments were those they had heard “from the beginning.” In other words, they are the clear teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 19:17 and elsewhere.

Then, in verse 7, John warns that the “deceivers” do not teach “Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” He describes such teaching as “Antichrist.” The significance of Jesus Christ “as coming in the flesh” is that—as in the original Greek—the present continuous tense is here used, denoting something that is now happening.

The well-known Expositor’s Bible Commentary attempts to explain this passage (2 John 7) in the following words:

“Curiously the tense is changed from the past tense ‘has come [el luthota] in the flesh’ (1 John 4:2) to the present participle ‘as coming [erchomenon] in the flesh.’ It would be possible, therefore, to interpret this as a reference to Jesus’ return: he is coming (i.e., will come) in the flesh (cf. 1 John 2:28; 3:2). But since we know of no controversy in this area, this seems unlikely. Dodd obscures the sense by translating the participle erchomenon in the past tense, as if its meaning were simply identical with 1 John 4:2, and then offers the surprising explanation that ‘our author is not skilled in the niceties of the Greek idiom’ (Johannine Epistles, p. 149).

It is far safer, however, to assume that the writer does know the difference between a present participle and a perfect (past tense) and that his intention is to say something beyond what he was saying in 1 John 4:2.”

As those highly trained Greek scholars acknowledge, John is indeed saying something “beyond” his statement in 1 John 4:2! John not only says that Christ has come fully in the human flesh. But God inspired John in this latter passage to reveal that Christ is now coming “in the flesh!”

How?

As we have already seen, Jesus said: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). Through the Holy Spirit, Christ and the Father actually live within the truly converted Christian, guiding him, inspiring him and empowering him to keep the commandments and live God’s way of life!

The Apostle Paul was also inspired to make this very plain when he wrote: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, KJV).

That is the “key.” Through the Spirit, Christ will literally live His life in our human flesh! He will give us the strength to obey God’s commandments!

Religious opponents challenge the real Christian by saying: “You can’t keep the Ten Commandments! They are spiritual and you are only physical.” But one who is led by God’s Holy Spirit may truly reply: “You are right. In my own human strength, I can’t. But to the degree I yield to God’s Holy Spirit, I can and I will keep God’s commandments! Christ within me helps me not to kill, steal, lie, commit adultery, covet, dishonor my parents, break God’s Sabbath, practice idolatry, take God’s name in vain or have another ‘god’ before the true God. I may slip in some point occasionally, but I will then repent and confess my sin to God and have His forgiveness (1 John 1:8–9). Then I quickly get back on God’s path and, through His Spirit, grow in grace and knowledge. I am not perfect. But, through Christ living His life within me, I am growing toward perfection and walking in God’s law as my basic way of life.”

CHRIST LIVES WITHIN THE TRUE CHRISTIAN

The doctrine of Antichrist, then, is that Christ does not literally live His life within His people today! It is the false teaching that Christians today can live a different kind of life from what Jesus lived and still be His true followers. It often includes the idea that Christ was righteous in our stead, and therefore we do not have to be. We just accept Him and His righteousness is imputed to us. Effectively, God “kids Himself” and pretends that we are really righteous when we actually are not!

This doctrine is a damnable lie!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He will live the same kind of life in you and me today that He lived nearly 2,000 years ago when He walked this earth in the human flesh. At that time, He continually taught obedience to all of God’s commandments (Matthew 5:19). We have seen His answer to the young man asking Him how to inherit eternal life: “Keep the commandments” (19:17). Near the end of the Apostolic Age, God inspired the Apostle John to describe the true saints of God: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).

There are many, many false ministers today who are teaching the doctrine of Antichrist, a doctrine that sanctions disobedience to God’s commandments—a doctrine of “no works.” The Apostle Paul said of these ministers: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). You will notice here that Satan has ministers who appear to be righteous. Ironically, their end—their final reward—will be according to their “works,” the very thing they seek to deny!

God intends for us to obey His commandments, do good works and live by His every word. Once you get this principle straight, you can clearly understand the “spirit of Antichrist” and how to test whether any religious leader’s idea or doctrine is of God! Then, by diligent study of God’s Word and by constant prayer, you will come to a deeper understanding of the real purpose of your life and experience closer contact with the Living God than you may ever have dreamed possible.

You will come to see who truly is of God—His true Church, which has faithfully proclaimed the same Gospel He sent through Jesus Christ. In this end time, that Message—of obedience to God’s Kingdom and rule—is to be preached by His Church as a witness to all nations (Matthew 24:14). You are reading that Message this very instant!

In Revelation 12:17, the true Church of God is described as a woman persecuted by the devil. This Church is a remnant. Its members are those “who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Again, the true saints of God are described in like manner in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

Yes, Jesus Christ is to live and dwell within His people today through the Holy Spirit. To the degree they yield to Him, their lives will be ones of full and complete obedience, just as Jesus’ life was in the flesh. Their customs, their traditions, their way of life will be the same as His in every respect, because He does not change. And He will be living within them! Then Christ and the Father can be absolutely sure that their people are fully surrendered to God, who can continually impart to true Christians His very divine nature and character—and so prepare them to be kings and priests in the literal Kingdom of God soon to be set up on this earth. “And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:5–6).

Examine yourself honestly. Have you really understood Christianity before? Is Christ really living His life in you? Do you have the spiritual “backbone” to act on the knowledge you have just received?

RESTORING APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY

As many of you readers already know, we in this Work are restoring—for those willing to heed—the true Christianity of Jesus and the Apostles. This genuine “Apostolic Christianity” has definitely been lost as far as mainstream “churchianity” is concerned. It is important to realize that if Jesus Himself would walk into a typical Protestant or Catholic Church today, He would find people there with an entirely different concept of God than He taught.

These folks would be observing different days for worshipping God—days that are pagan in origin and which utterly fail to point to the true God and His great plan as the biblical Holy Days do. Jesus would find that most of these professing “Christians” have no idea about how to truly keep the Ten Commandments or about the importance Christ placed upon them (see Matthew 19:17). These blinded individuals go to war with Britain (for instance) in one generation, with Spain in another, with Germany and Japan in another. They and their deceived ministers seemingly pay no attention to Jesus’ very clear instruction in Matthew 5:43–44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”

These professing Christians are utterly blinded to the fact that true Christians are now “in training” to become kings and priests under Jesus Christ and to serve under Him in ruling this world during the next thousand years (see Revelation 5:9–10; 20:6)! Rather, these folks assume—contrary to Jesus’ teachings—that at death they will “go to heaven” and have nothing to do! So the false teachings of professing Christianity have blinded them to the entire purpose God is working out here on earth!

In a typical church today, Jesus would find people who have a sentimental feeling about Him personally, but have virtually no understanding of the powerful message He preached. They speak about “the Lord Jesus Christ.” But, frankly, He is not their “Lord”—for they do not obey Him or even grasp how they should obey Him! And Jesus Himself said, over and over: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Again: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” (Matthew 7:21–23). Indeed, those who fail to preach and to practice genuine obedience to the Ten Commandments are in terrible trouble!

God’s Word clearly indicates that the vast majority of human beings today are deceived. For God speaks of “the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). And the Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).

The Apostle Jude warned us specifically: “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saint s. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 3–4).

It is significant that Jude was inspired by God to point out that these false teachers would turn “grace” into “license”—which is exactly what they do today! For the common Protestant teaching is that you are “saved” by a sentimental acceptance of Christ’s death and that—at that point—there is nothing else you really have to do! No obedience to the Ten Commandments. No required “growing” in grace, in knowledge and in Christian maturity. No further “overcoming” of your human nature, of the world or of Satan the Devil.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

Recent news reports from many nations have indicated that Roman Catholic persecution of religious minorities continues. Although the Roman Catholic Church has learned to smile and act agreeably in nations where Protestants or others are in the majority, the old demons of hate and authoritarianism come out very quickly when it is in control.

A recent article in Christianity Today magazine (August 2000, p. 30) reported: “In March, about 70 Protestant families were expelled from the Mexican village of Plan de Ayala, in Chiapas state, by the town’s Roman Catholic majority. ‘Fourteen homes were demolished by the mob as the Protestants fled to the hills for refuge,’ reports Seventh-Day Adventist pastor Isias Espinosa.” This is just a tiny sampling of the type of religious oppression practiced by this powerful church! And its leaders continue to emphasize that they are the only true church—that others are, in effect, only “second-class Christians.” Note this September 5, 2000 report by Victor Simpson of the Associated Press:

“Accusing some Catholic theologians of manipulating fundamental truths of the church, the Vatican rejected Tuesday what it said are growing attempts to depict all religions as equal…the Vatican equality refers to ‘personal dignity’ of individuals and not to doctrine. It is the second recent document by the congregation [the Roman Catholic ‘Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’] warning against abuses by Catholics in dealings with other religions and denominations. Italian media have reported the congregation also has warned against the phrase ‘sister churches,’ saying that it contradicts the Catholic Church’s identity as ‘mother‘ of all churches. That document has not yet been released. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, at a news conference repeatedly referred to a trend toward religious relativism.

‘The lack of unity among Christians is certainly a wound for the church,’ the document said, saying it hindered ‘ the complete fulfillment of her universality in history.’

The declaration, a complex theological document, was titled ‘On the Unity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church.'”

So the Roman Catholic Church not only admits, but even insists that it is the “mother” of all professing Christian churches! And it insists also that it alone has the “keys” to God’s Kingdom!

Truly, it is time to wake up!

It is time for all who believe in God to go back and prove whether their religious beliefs and practices actually came out of the Bible—or out of “Babylon.” For the Creator God tells all who will heed: “‘For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.’ And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues‘” (Revelation 18:3–4).

Although, as the Apostle John wrote, “even now, many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18), it is also true that the embodiment of Antichrist will be most fully expressed in the great false prophet described in 2 Thessalonians 2:1–10 and Revelation 13:11–14. Probably within the next five to 15 years, this cunning individual will appear on the world scene. He will appear at first as a great “peacemaker” and benefactor of mankind. Before long, he will begin performing miracles—even bringing fire down from heaven (Revelation 13:13)!

But, again, His teaching will be “anti-Christ.” There will be lots of ritual, pomp and ceremony and lots of flowery talk. But there will not be the clear teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, to keep God’s commandments and literally imitate Christ—surrendering to let Jesus Christ live His obedient life within us through the Holy Spirit.

Remember always, that is the “key!”

For Satan the Devil is glad to have you “believe in Christ”—as long as your Christ is a false Christ. He is glad to have you go to the “church of your choice”—providing that he can deceive you into going to a church led by blinded, commandment-rejecting theologians. For as Jesus said: “If the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14).

In Christ’s name, I urge you: please begin to genuinely study your Bible as never before! Also, do yourself a favor and write in for your absolutely free enrollment in our inspiring and most helpful Tomorrow’s World Bible Study Course. Study through this course and follow Paul’s inspired admonition: “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV).

Again, I urge you to write in immediately and request your free copy of our truly revealing booklets entitled The Beast of Revelation and Which Day is the Christian Sabbath? These booklets—coupled with this booklet you are now reading—will give you the full picture and proof of the nature of the powerful and ominous forces now rising in Europe.

As Jesus said: “Watch.” Keep your eyes on the revival of the Holy Roman Empire. “Watch” how it slowly but surely begins to gain total power in most of Europe—then Central and South America and, finally, most of the entire world. “Watch” how other churches are, bit by bit, coaxed, persuaded or finally coerced into going back to the “mother” church. Frankly, you will be disappointed to see how many supposedly dedicated Protestant and evangelical leaders will be maneuvered into giving up much of what they have always believed when real pressure is put upon them.

Will you also turn aside from the God of the Bible? Will you join or continue to be part of a watered-down “Christianity” where deceived church members regularly violate God’s commanded Sabbath, where they are “allowed”—or perhaps even encouraged—to fight and to kill in human warfare, contrary to Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 5:43–45)? Will you be part of a church where pomp, ceremony and the worship of idols is practiced, and where the whole concept of literal obedience to the Ten Commandments as a way of life is not taught, and where clever arguments against the need for true Christians to keep God’s commandments are regularly employed against those who dare to heed Christ’s actual words?

Soon, the ultimate personification of the Antichrist will appear on the world scene. Appearing at first as a kind and gentle “peacemaker,” he will gradually assert more and more authority. His authority will be enhanced by the false miracles Satan performs through him (Revelation 13:13). Then, the adoring masses will scream with excitement when they see him, and the doctrine of the Antichrist will permeate nearly all of professing Christianity—all except the “little flock” (Luke 12:32) described in Revelation 12:13–17.

For your eternal good, pray for real understanding, faith and courage. Obey Jesus’ instruction: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Booklet Category

False Religion

Prophecy

The Middle East in Prophecy

4uwzvo — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 19:15:14 +0000

The Middle East in Prophecy 4uwzvo Tue, 03/01/2022 - 19:15

The Middle East in Prophecy

Richard F. Ames

Booklet Media

#Israel

#Middle East

#Prophecy

Jerusalem is the most important city in the world. Scripture shows that the region surrounding it – the Middle East – will eventually explode into world war. Do you know what the Bible teaches about the end-time climax of world events in that region? You may be surprised!

The Middle East has been in turmoil for decades. Many who are following world news wonder what will happen next, and what the final outcome will be. Yet very few realize that Bible prophecy explains in advance the earthshaking events that will lead to greater disasters in the region—and ultimately to World War III!

The Bible outlines end-time events leading up to Jesus Christ’s return. What happens in the Middle East, as His return draws near, will affect your life and the lives of everyone on earth. Understanding those events will help you to take action for your family’s welfare. You can escape the prophesied disasters and judgments (Luke 21:36) upon a warring and God-defying world.

The Middle East seems to bring the world a constant stream of bad news. Bible prophecy shows that this bad news will continue until Jesus Christ’s return. But once the world survives “Armageddon” in the Middle East, a time of good news will follow. Jerusalem will then live up to its name: “City of Peace.” A Millennium of peace and prosperity is coming, under the rulership of the Messiah. As King of kings, Jesus Christ will rule the earth from Jerusalem with justice and righteousness, and all nations on earth will learn a new way of life—the way to peace.

But first, the Middle East must pass through difficult times ahead.

Throughout history, human nature has looked to war as the final arbiter of disputes. The Apostle Paul made a profound statement: “The way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:17–18). More than a million were killed in the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988. Thousands upon thousands more died in the Persian Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm in 1990–91. Scarcely more than a decade later, the United States entangled itself financially and militarily in another Iraq conflict, leading to questions about military and political motivations for U.S. action, and bringing about thousands more deaths and a grave loss of international prestige for the U.S.

Will there be more wars in the Middle East? Sadly, the answer is “yes.” Your Bible reveals that there will be even more regional wars there, leading to what is commonly called “Armageddon.” Jerusalem will be a focal point of conflict.

Arabs and Israelis have been at war since the modern state of Israel was established. Peace has often been proclaimed in the region, but has never been realized. More than 25 years after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat gave hope to the world, flying to Israel to offer a dramatic overture of peace, the process he hoped to encourage has stalled, if not stopped. At present, there is little human prospect for lasting peace among Middle East nations.

The Bible reveals that this millennia-old conflict will come to a peaceful resolution in the not-too-distant future. But before this resolution is reached, much blood will be shed, and mankind will go through a time of war and suffering on a scale previously unknown in human history.

Understanding Bible prophecy about the Middle East can bring us hope and comfort even as the current crisis escalates. The Bible is full of information that can help us see the current Middle East conflict in the light of God’s plan for end-time world events. It explains many details unknown to the world’s politicians and policymakers. As we will see, it reveals what the ancient rivalry between Abraham’s grandsons Jacob and Esau means for the Middle East conflict today. Scripture also debunks many popular but false teachings regarding Russia’s role in end-time prophecy. It gives an overview of the “key players” in end-time prophecy—including the “beast,” the false prophet and the King of the North—and the final phase of World War III, as we will see later in this booklet.

Bible prophecy has revealed in advance many key facts and details that can help us prepare for the dangerous and challenging times ahead, as we strive to obey Jesus Christ’s command that we “watch and pray” as end-time events grow closer (Mark 13:33). And it reveals the vital role of Jerusalem—a city with a remarkable past and an even more remarkable future—at the center of many end-time events and prophecies.

Jerusalem—Holy City for Three Religions

Jerusalem (in Arabic called al-Quds, “the holy”) is sacred to the three major monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. As a result, it has been a focus of conflict for centuries.

Conquered by the Romans before Christ’s birth, it was in the hands of Byzantine rulers when it fell to a Muslim army led by Caliph Umar in 638. In 1071, the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, and by cutting pilgrim routes from the West gave impetus to the First Crusade. This crusade brought Jerusalem under Western control in the “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” which held the city from 1099 to 1187, when Saladin reconquered Jerusalem for Islam. Later crusades brought Jerusalem briefly under Western control from 1229 to 1239, and from 1243 to 1244, when it was sacked by the Tatars. In 1247, the city fell to the Egyptian Mamluks, under whose control it remained until 1517, when Ottoman sultan Selim I conquered the city.

Jerusalem remained under Ottoman control for almost exactly four centuries. In 1917, during World War I, General Allenby and the British army defeated the Ottoman Turks and entered the city. In November of that year, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, which declared Britain’s intent to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, with the understanding that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”

In 1947, the United Nations partitioned Jerusalem and the city was divided between Arab and Jewish control. In May 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared Israel an independent state. Israel successfully defended itself against the attack of the Arab League. During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured all of Jerusalem, putting it fully under Jewish rule for the first time since the Roman destruction in 70ad.

The future of the world greatly depends on the future of this city. To Jews, Jerusalem was the city of the great prophets and the capital of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah under King David and his son King Solomon. The first and second temples were the center of worship until the destruction of the city by the Romans in 70ad. Jerusalem is also the third most holy city of Islam, after the cities of Mecca and Medina. Completed in 691ad, the Mosque of Omar—also called the “Dome of the Rock”—today dominates the Temple Mount. The Arabic term for the holy place is “al-Haram as-Sharif” which means “The Noble Sanctuary.” Muslims believe that it marks the location where Abraham offered his son Ishmael (not Isaac, as the Bible reports) in sacrifice, and where Muhammad ascended to heaven. Christians revere the city as the place where their Savior taught in the temple—and was later crucified. Christians believe that Jesus will return to establish His Kingdom with Jerusalem as world capital.

The Temple Mount is a focus for Muslims and Jews, who have been at odds in the Middle East for more than 1,300 years, ever since an Arabian trader named Muhammad, 800 miles southeast of Jerusalem, established the religion of Islam. Islam’s Dome of the Rock now stands where tradition indicates Solomon’s temple once stood. Jews are not allowed to pray on the Mount itself, so they come to the Western Wall—or “Wailing Wall”—at the base of the Mount to pray. Many Jews yearn to have a religious presence on the Temple Mount itself.

Hopes for peace were high on September 13, 1993, when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a “Declaration of Principles” in Washington, D.C. Observers were so encouraged by this development that the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In May 1994, Israel and the Palestinians signed an interim agreement leading to increased Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The peace process was shattered, though, in November 1995, when an Israeli extremist assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Just a week before his death, Rabin had told journalists that he intended to go forward with negotiations with Syria.

Rabin’s death cast a pall over the peace process. Still, Israelis and Palestinians hoped to negotiate peace. The Wye River Memorandum, signed in October 1998, sought to implement the 1995 interim agreement, looking to a May 1999 target date for a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But no resolution could be found. The July 2000 Camp David summit, called by U.S. President Bill Clinton, failed to formulate a final peace agreement—underscoring the bitter truth that bothIsrael and the Palestinians consider Jerusalem their exclusive capital, and do not want the other to have unfettered control of this historic city.

In September 2000, when he was still opposition leader, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, inciting Palestinian protests. As violence escalated, hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis were killed or wounded. It was the worst violence the region had seen in four years. U.S. efforts to reconcile Israel and the Palestinians proved unsuccessful. When Sharon, a key figure in many of Israel’s military operations over the years, became Prime Minister, many Arabs vowed to intensify their opposition to the state of Israel. The religious conflict that was sparked in Jerusalem reignited the intifada (Arabic for “uprising”), broadening the violence throughout the region.

More than 200,000 Israelis live in about 150 settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Also scattered throughout the region are Palestinian communities in Hebron, Jericho, Nablus and Bethlehem. Conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians are ongoing; Agence–France Press reported that as of November 2005, when a truce was implemented, the intifada had claimed the lives of more than 5,300 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis since September 2000. Since 2001, suicide bombers have often attacked Israelis, who have responded in turn with military force in the West Bank.

The West’s perception of Middle East violence, and its relationship to world terrorism, was changed forever on September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four planes which they used as missiles, destroying the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and damaging the Pentagon in Washington, DC. On September 20, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush, before a joint session of Congress, declared war on international terrorism. A U.S.-led coalition joined with Afghan militias in destroying and expelling al-Qaeda forces. Afghanistan’s Taliban government was overthrown, and the world’s attention quickly shifted to Iraq. Saddam Hussein, who had for years been accused of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, was defeated in a war that surprised many with its speed—but “winning the peace” has proved to be a far greater challenge, as the U.S. remains mired in a conflict that Defense Department analysts say could last for many years. Through it all, regional terrorism continues, and U.S. agencies are preparing for future attacks by al-Qaeda and other terror cells.

Most Muslims do not consider themselves terrorists, nor do they support the terror carried out by al-Qaeda. There are more than 1.3 billion Muslims around the world, between one-quarter and one-third of whom live in the Middle East. Yet while the vast majority of Muslims consider themselves peace-loving people, their religion has been used as a rallying point by a small number of extremists who wish to destabilize nations in order to achieve their goals.

Instability appears to be a fact of life in the 21st century. Even as it faces reduced international credibility in light of its Iraq involvement, the U.S. now seeks to lead an alliance to counter potential terror threats sponsored by what President George W. Bush has called an “axis of evil” that includes two Middle East nations—Iran and Iraq. Pakistan and India, like Israel, are known to have nuclear weapons. Other countries, such as North Korea, are widely suspected of nuclear capability. In today’s unstable environment, many of the world’s experts consider nuclear war a distinct possibility—even a probability. If total war breaks out in the Middle East, might future missiles deliver nuclear, biological and chemical destruction to Israel and surrounding nations? Will the Holy Land become the focal point for another world war?

What Lies Ahead?

Many observers think that it is foolish, or even impossible, to predict the future. In the Bible, however, God, has given us prophecies that can help us understand what will happen in and around Jerusalem in the end-times. What does the Bible say will eventually happen? “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city” (Zechariah 14:1–2).

“All the nations” will fight in this conflict, during that period of time known as the Day of the Lord—the year just before Jesus Christ’s prophesied return. But what major prophetic events will lead up to this battle in Jerusalem? “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21–22).

The book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse, reveals the dramatic end-time events leading up to the glorious return of Jesus Christ. Revelation 6 describes the events leading up to the Day of the Lord. All of humanity will see dramatic and frightening activity in the heavens. Revelation 6:12–14 describes these “heavenly signs” as the “sixth seal.” Jesus said: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29). These heavenly signs precede the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:30–31), the year of God’s judgment on the nations. Then, after these events, the Messiah—Jesus Christ—will rule all nations on earth (Revelation 11:15).

What role will Jerusalem play in that coming kingdom? Will it be the future capital of the world? Perhaps in your lifetime? Scripture gives us a wonderful and encouraging forecast: “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it” (Isaiah 2:1–2).

Mountains are a biblical symbol for a kingdom or government (see Jeremiah 51:24–25). Isaiah stated plainly that the Lord’s Kingdom would be established in Jerusalem and that “all nations shall flow to it.” This will not be government in the hands of selfish human beings. Humanity does not know the way to lasting peace, because it has rejected the rulership and the sovereignty of God over the affairs of man.

God’s government on earth will be administered from Jerusalem, the future capital of the world, as Zechariah confirms with a beautiful description of life there in the future. Notice in the book of Zechariah. “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets'” (Zechariah 8:3–5).

Today, however, the streets of Jerusalem are filled with bitter enemies, who share a rich heritage and history—but also share a history of conflict.

Bitter Family Rivalry

To understand the present Middle East conflict, we need to understand the history of those in conflict—the Jews and the Arabs. Historians often note the “family” relationship between these two peoples; some call them “cousins” because both trace their roots to the great patriarch Abraham.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam all honor Abraham as a patriarch. Calling him “Religion’s Superstar,” Time magazine asked: “Abraham changed history by espousing just one God, and is sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians. Can this crossover biblical hero help heal the world?” (Sept. 30, 2002, p. 5).

The answer is: not in this age! But in tomorrow’s world, as “heir of the world” (Romans 4:13) under Jesus Christ, and as one of the saints in God’s kingdom, Abraham will help teach the way to peace when all nations come to Jerusalem (see Isaiah 2:2–4).

In the 19th century bc, the Creator God began to work with Abraham (then called “Abram”). God tested his faith many times, even promising him a son in his old age—a promise that seemed to be delayed. Abram’s wife Sarai, unable to bear children, encouraged Abram to have a child through her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar. Eighty-six years old when the child was born, Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son whom Hagar bore (Genesis 16:15–16). To this day, Muslims acknowledge Ishmael as the ancestor of the Arabs, as described in their scripture, the Quran.

When Abram was 99 years old, God made a covenant with Abram that he would be “a father of many nations.” God then changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude.” God promised that Abraham and Sarai, whose name was changed to Sarah, would have a son named Isaac. God said to Abraham: “I will establish my covenant with him [Isaac] for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him” (Genesis 17:19). One of Isaac’s grandsons, Judah, would be the progenitor of the Jews, who now occupy the modern land called Israel.

After Isaac was born, Sarah insisted that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away. Sarah said to Abraham: “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac” (Genesis 21:10). Abraham was very upset at this request, but God told Abraham: “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed” (Genesis 21:12–13).

The envy and rivalry between these two peoples continues to this day. Another dimension that helps explain today’s ongoing conflict is the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac. Esau was the firstborn, and the heir of the family birthright. But in time of hunger, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup. Later, Jacob disguised himself as Esau and deceived his aging father Isaac into giving him the birthright blessing (see Genesis 25; 27). What was Esau’s reaction? “So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, ‘The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob'” (Genesis 27:41).

This bitter rivalry would continue throughout history. Esau is also called Edom (see Genesis 36). The Edomites intermarried with the Ishmaelites, beginning with Esau himself (see Genesis 28:9). The descendents of these peoples continued to be in conflict with Israel. The leading tribe of Edom, the Amalekites, continually harassed Israel (see Exodus 17). God said that He would have “war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16).

One of the Psalms also confirms both historically and prophetically that Edom, Ishmael and Amalek are joined in a confederacy against Israel. “They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have consulted together with one consent; they form a confederacy against You: the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot. Selah” (Psalm 83:4–8).

What nations have continuously committed themselves to destroy the name of Israel?

In July of 1968, Palestinian leaders signed the “Palestinian National Charter,” which called for the destruction of the State of Israel. In 1993, shortly before signing the “Declaration of Principles” with Israel, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an agreement renouncing this demand and agreeing to change the charter, but it remains an item of hot dispute to this day. As Psalm 83 indicates, Assyria (identified as modern-day Germany) will be joined by an end-time “confederacy” of Arab nations. Look on your Bible map for the ancient location of Moab, Ammon and Edom, mentioned in Psalm 83—nations that are also prominently mentioned in Daniel’s end-time prophecy. These are the Muslim peoples of the Middle East!

Understanding this bitter family rivalry, beginning with Jacob and Esau, gives us a better understanding of their descendants’ present-day wars and conflicts, particularly in the Middle East.

Daniel’s Famous Prophecy

Historically, the Roman Empire in Jesus’ day enforced a Pax Romana—”Roman Peace”—in the Holy Land. The prophet Daniel reveals that there will also be an end-time Roman Empire, which will play a crucial role in end-time conflicts in the Middle East. Daniel 2 records that King Nebuchadnezzar was going to execute all the wise men of Babylon if they did not tell him his dream, as well as its interpretation. The Creator God used the prophet Daniel to reveal the rise and fall of great empires, even down to our modern times. Here is what Daniel told the king: “But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days” (Daniel 2:28). Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that God had made him a king of kings, and described the image envisioned by the king. A great statue had a head of gold. Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar: “You are this head of gold” (v. 38). The remaining elements of the great image symbolized the great empires to follow after the Babylonian empire.

Who were these empires? All reputable Bible scholars agree on their identity and their prophetic fulfillment. Daniel continued to describe what would eventually happen to this great image. The head of gold represented the Babylonian Empire from 625 to 539bc. Next came the Medo-Persian Empire, from 558 to 330bc, represented by the chest and arms of silver. The belly and thighs of bronze represented the Greco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great from 333 to 31bc. The two legs of iron represent the Roman Empire from 31bc to 476ad. Finally, the ten toes on two feet of iron mixed with ceramic clay represent a future revival of the Roman Empire.

How do we know that the feet of the image will continue into our modern times? Daniel describes a great stone that smashes the image on its feet. He also describes the stone’s meaning: “And in the days of these kings [symbolized by the ten toes] the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). The Kingdom of God that will “consume all these kingdoms” is yet future!

The end-time power that will eventually dominate the Middle East, will be a revived Roman Empire, also symbolized in the prophecies of Revelation and Daniel as a beast (cf. Daniel 7:17–18; Revelation 17:9–14; 13:1–18). This great power will be political, military, and economic. The current European Union is headed toward completing all three dimensions of that power. It could have the potential of being a force for good. But history teaches us that great empires and political alliances can also revert to dictatorial power for the purpose of global expansion and domination without regard for the welfare of conquered nation-states. The Creator God will use such an empire in the future, just as He has in the past. God used Assyria to punish the rebellious kingdom of Israel. In the opening verses of Isaiah 10, God indicts Israel for all her sins, then states: “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations” (Isaiah 10:5–7).

God will once again use the descendants of Assyria to punish the descendants of the ancient House of Israel. God will use modern-day Germany to conquer the American and British-descended peoples. Germany is presently the leading nation of the European Union, and will play a central role in end-time prophecy. To learn more, please write for our free reprint article, “A Fourth Reich?”Be sure to watch developments in Europe.

In Daniel 11, we find two antagonists: the king of the North and the king of the South. In ancient times, Syria was considered to be the king of the North. But the Roman Empire conquered Syria, which became a province of Rome in 64bc. Bible prophecy shows that by the time of the end, the king of the North will be identified with the revived Roman Empire. Then: “At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the Glorious Land, [or the Holy Land] and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape” (Daniel 11:40–42).

Notice that the king of the North enters into the “Glorious Land”—the location of the modern state of Israel. The fact that Ammon (which Bible scholars identify as modern-day Jordan) escapes out of his hand, along with Edom and Moab, leads many to believe that Jordan will be allied with the European power. Psalm 83 identifies those peoples who will be confederate with Assyria against Israel. That alliance includes Moab, Ammon and Edom.

Daniel 11:43 gives us an indication of those nations allied with the king of the South. These are the peoples of north Africa. Verse 40 states that the king of the South attacks the king of the North. What will provoke this attack? Will it be the passion of Islamic fundamentalists? Will it be a sudden interruption of oil flow to Europe? You need to watch world events in Europe and the Middle East.

Who will invade the Middle East? Look for a revived Roman Empire—a political entity now in its formative stages with the European Union as its nucleus. There will be a forced peace upon modern Israel in the Middle East. But, as we will see later, the “Beast power” that occupies the Middle East will be overthrown by the returning Commander of Heaven’s armies, Jesus Christ. The King of kings and Lord of lords, revealed in Revelation 19, will see that the beast and the false prophet are cast into a lake of fire. Jerusalem will be occupied by Earth’s new King, Jesus Christ. The name of the city will even be called “The Lord is There” (Ezekiel 48:35). Peace willfinally come to the Middle East and to the City of Peace, Jerusalem.

Will Russia Control the Middle East?

Some teachers of biblical prophecy wrongly believe that Russia will take over the Middle East before Christ’s second coming. Where does that mistaken idea come from? It comes mainly from a misunderstanding of Ezekiel 38, which begins: “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him” (vv. 1–2). Most biblical scholars identify these peoples as those from northern Russia. Wilhelm Gesenius, a 19th century Hebrew scholar, noted that the city of Moscow is derived from the Hebrew name Meshech. Ezekiel continues: “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops; many people are with you'” (vv. 3–6).

Notice that the house of Togarmah is from the far north, that is, north of the Holy Land. When you look at a map, Russia is in the far north. Who will join Russia? Persia is mentioned. Most scholars agree that Persia is modern-day Iran. The Hebrew word for Ethiopia is Cush, the eastern branch of which has sometimes been identified with India. The Hebrew word for Libya is Put (Put was the third son of Ham, according to Genesis 10:6), whose eastern branch, like Cush, is also identified with India. Magog is identified with the Mongols and Gomer with Indochina. Togarmah is most likely identified with Siberia.

We can generally agree on the identity of these peoples mentioned in Ezekiel 38. And Bible prophecy shows that these armies certainly will eventually enter the Middle East. But the question is: When? After Jesus’ second coming, He will work to bring world peace and reeducate the nations (cf. Isaiah 2; Micah 4). But that will take time. All nations will not automatically accept the rule of Jesus Christ when He returns. Even Egypt will apparently refuse the Lord’s command to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem (cf. Zechariah 14:18–19). The Russo-Chinese alliance, mentioned in Ezekiel 38, will attack after the Millennium begins—after the second coming of Christ, and after peace is established in the Holy Land. Notice what God says of the invading armies: “You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalledvillages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’; to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land” (Ezekiel 38:11–12).

Does Israel today “dwell safely” in unwalled villages, that is, without military protection? Of course not! Ezekiel is speaking of a time yet future, when Christ establishes peace in the Holy Land. Notice: “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it?”‘” (v. 14).

God will destroy this eastern alliance and its armies when they attack restored Israel (cf. Ezekiel 39). There will be so many dead bodies that it will take months to bury them. “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land” (Ezekiel 39:12). Almighty God has all the power in the universe to fulfill His will. It is folly for nations to fight against Him and His purpose. But the nations will learn who is in charge. As God states: “Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 38:23).

Who Will Control Jerusalem?

Since 1967, Israel has fought wars and negotiated peace treaties with several Arab states. But Israel has never been able to negotiate a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians. In July 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak did what no Israeli negotiator had done before—he proposed that Israel would grant administrative self-governance to Palestinians in East Jerusalem. But Barak wanted Israel to retain security control over East Jerusalem, and the Palestinians rejected his proposal. Negotiations broke down, leading to ongoing conflict. What caused the impasse in negotiations? The one issue that appears unsolvable: “Who will control Jerusalem?”

In 1980, Israel declared Jerusalem as its “united and eternal capital.” The Palestinians also desire Jerusalem as their capital. Before his death in 2002, Faisal Husseini, a representative of the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, stated the Palestinian position that Israel “must withdraw from all of east Jerusalem to the pre-’67 borders… all settlements and Israeli neighborhoods in east Jerusalem must be dismantled… Israel must compensate the Palestinians for the damages it has inflicted including the changes in the character of the city and the lives of its citizens” (The Jerusalem Post, Nov. 19, 1999).

Israel has maintained that Jerusalem must remain its undivided capital. As Israeli spokesman Gadi Baltiansky stated in 1999: “There will be no negotiations over Jerusalem, and if the Palestinians think otherwise—too bad. This is a red line that Prime Minister Barak will never cross” (ibid.). Even Barak’s proposal for “sharing sovereignty” did not concede that Jerusalem was not a united city under the control of Israeli security. In the years since, facing the intifada, Barak’s successors have expressed no eagerness to revisit his proposal, which Israelis considered generous but which Palestinians considered unacceptable.

The U.S. has backed Israel in this dispute, and has thus found itself the target of international anger. On September 30, 2002, President Bush signed congressional legislation that required his administration to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. What was the reaction? Cairo’s leading newspaper reported: “The new US legislation requiring all official American documents to identify the occupied city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has triggered angry reactions throughout the Islamic world. Thousands of demonstrators marched through Gaza, threatening to intensify suicide bombings inside Israel, while popular and religious leaders called on Arab and Islamic parliaments to adopt a strong stance against this latest outrage, calling, among other things, for a boycott of American goods” (Al-Ahram, Oct. 16, 2002).

The gap between the two sides’ views is wide and deep! What solutions has the international community proposed? In 1980, when Israel called Jerusalem its “united and eternal capital,” the Vatican strongly objected. In 1984, Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter, Redemptoris Anno, calling for Jerusalem to have a “special internationally guaranteed status.” In 1975, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had made a similar proposal, that Jerusalem become an international city with the control of holy places and the religious administration being given to the pope.

Pope John Paul II spoke to the new Jordanian ambassador to the Vatican on May 28, 1998. Reuters reported his comments: “The long history of the city of Jerusalem, filled with tribulations, will reach a new threshold in the year 2000, with the dawn of the third millennium of Christianity.… It is my fervent hope that this may lead to a formal recognition, with international guarantees, of the unique and sacred identity of the Holy City.”

Will non-Israelis control Jerusalem? The Apostle John said that they will! “Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months'” (Revelation 11:1–2).

Gentiles will control the “holy city”—Jerusalem—for 42 months. The book of Revelation describes a 42-month period leading up to the return of Christ. Two prophets of God will witness with great power during these three and one-half years, or 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3–15). These two witnesses will contend with the forces of a revived Roman Empire, which will dominate the Middle East at that time.

Temple Sacrifices Restored?

Many religious teachers understand part of Bible prophecy. They expect that the Jewish orthodox authority in Israel will once again establish temple sacrifices. Groups such as the Third Temple Institute in Jerusalem are making preparations today to train priests and assemble the items required for the reestablishment of sacrifices. Will the Jewish priesthood once again offer animal sacrifices? Some Jewish groups are going to great lengths trying to make this happen.

A few religious groups and individuals have gone overboard in their desire to see prophecy fulfilled. The Israeli authorities placed their security on special alert during the months of December 1999 and January 2000 because several religious groups, referred to as “apocalyptic,” allegedly plotted to “help prophecy along” by their own efforts, and threatened to blow up the Dome of the Rock in order to make possible the construction of a third temple.

But true Christians recognize that God is in charge. He does not need our help to bring these prophecies to pass! Besides, true Christians do not go around causing violence and blowing up buildings. Even some Jewish extremists have threatened violence around the Temple Mount to get their way. Any such violence on the Temple Mount could cause an Arab uprising, or even a jihad (holy war) that would have international repercussions.

The Dome of the Rock, a mosque holy to Muslims, stands on the Temple Mount, where there is no Jewish temple. Yet many Jews, and some Christians, are expecting some kind of divine intervention that would make possible the building of a third temple on the Temple Mount.

What will happen? Prophecy indicates that the sacrifices will be reinstituted. The Jews have not offered temple sacrifices since Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the second temple in 70ad. This leads to another important question: is a temple necessary for the revival of sacrifices?

The Babylonian Empire of the sixth century bc conquered the kingdom of Judah. The Babylonians transported thousands of captive Jews to Babylon. The armies of King Nebuchadnezzar also destroyed the first temple at Jerusalem in 586bc. Eventually, under the Persian Empire, King Cyrus sponsored a group of exiles to return to Jerusalem. When the returning Jews eventually laid the foundation of the second temple, there was both rejoicing and sadness. Joy because they now had a center of worship, and sadness because this second temple was very simple by comparison to the former glorious temple built by King Solomon. But notice the attitude of the Jews. They actually began sacrificing before the foundation of the temple was laid. “From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, although the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not been laid” (Ezra 3:6). The Jews had observed the Feast of Tabernacles in their unfinished temple, with daily sacrifices.

Notice another important point. Where do the exiles return? Ezra refers to the location of the holy place as the house of God, when the temple had not yet been built: “Now in the second month of the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem” (v. 8). This took place around 536bc. But there was no building as yet. The third chapter of Ezra goes on to describe the laying of the foundation of the temple. Sacrifices must be presented in a holy place. But in this case, the sacrifices were made daily without a physical building called a temple.

The holiest place under the control of the Jewish religious authorities today, is the “Wailing Wall”—the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount. Jews are not currently allowed to publicly worship on the Temple Mount; only Muslims now have that privilege. So, it remains to be seen where the Jews will begin sacrificing. It will probably take a national crisis to precipitate that event.

Jesus spoke of a time when enemy armies would invade the Holy Land and surround Jerusalem. “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near” (Luke 21:20). Remember this is in the context of Jesus’ Olivet Prophecy, also described in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. A powerful alliance of nations will invade the Middle East and dominate the region, as foretold by the prophet Daniel (cf. Daniel 11:41).

There will be international guarantees, protecting Jerusalem, enforced by a superpower. But these guarantees will also enforce the pseudo-Christianity of a revived Roman Empire. There will be a revived Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”), imposed by what the Bible calls the end-time “beast” (see Revelation 13).

When the “beast” superpower occupies Jerusalem, this will signal the time of the great “tribulation” and “the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22).

Although the word “Jerusalem” means “city of peace,” Jerusalem has experienced bloody fighting and wars over the millennia. But soon, this great city will truly be the city of peace for all peoples. That is good news you can look forward to!

It is important to note that the prophesied “great tribulation” is primarily a time of trouble for the U.S. and British-descended peoples, who are descended from the ancient patriarch Joseph. When he was near death, Jacob blessed two of his grandsons—Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh—and said: “The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let my name [Jacob, i.e. Israel] be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth” (Genesis 48:16).

The end-time prophecies relating to Jacob, or Israel, generally refer to the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh who were given Jacob’s name. Scripture gives an end-time warning about a great “tribulation.” Upon whom does this tribulation fall? “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7). To learn more about the “time of Jacob’s trouble” and what it means for the American and other British-descended nations, please write for your free copy of our booklet The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy.

Watch for the Abomination of Desolation

The prophesied “great tribulation” will be a time unique in all of history—a time such “that none is like it.” What does the Bible tell us to do? Jesus tells us: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

What should you watch for in the Middle East? When Jesus was on the Mount of Olives, He gave an outline of end-time prophecy, with parallel accounts recorded in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13. Jesus’ disciples had asked him about the sign of His coming and the end of the world, or the end of the age. He spoke about religious deception, wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes. These trends reveal, in sequence, the meaning of the four horsemen of Revelation 6, who, toward the end of this age, intensify their dangerous ride. Jesus declares: “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8).

Religious persecution and martyrdom will follow. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matthew 24:9–11).

But the Truth will still be preached! “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). As Jesus Christ opens doors for the gospel to expand in coverage and power, you will know that the end is drawing near. Do not be asleep to world conditions and the prophetic trends intensifying before your very eyes!

Jesus gave us a key sign to watch for, which will signify the beginning of the great tribulation and trouble in the Holy Land. He warned: “‘Therefore when you see the “abomination of desolation,” spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place’ (whoever reads, let him understand) ‘then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains'” (Matthew 24:15–16).

What is this abomination of desolation?

Centuries before Christ, an angel gave the prophet Daniel a vision concerning end-time events. When Daniel asked the meaning of the message, the angel told him: “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end” (Daniel 12:9). More than 2,500 years later, we can now understand these prophecies. Notice another important detail. “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days” (Daniel 12:11). At the time of the end, shortly before the return of Christ, God reveals that the daily sacrifice will be stopped or “taken away.” This obviously implies that the sacrifices must be started, before they can be stopped! But what exactly is this “abomination of desolation”?

Historically, the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes issued a decree in 167bc that prohibited further Jewish sacrifices in the temple at Jerusalem. “And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation” (Daniel 11:31).

In addition to stopping the daily sacrifices in the temple, Antiochus erected a statue of Jupiter Olympus in the Holy of Holies, and sacrificed a pig upon the altar, desecrating it with the pig’s blood. This abomination, also described in Daniel 8, was also the prophetic forerunner (or “ante-type”) of an end-time event—the end-time sacrifices being cut off 1,290 days before Christ’s return. Jesus warns us to be alert to an end-time abomination of desolation. Just as Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the temple in 167bc and prohibited the sacrifices, so in the future another profane authority will prohibit sacrifices. In fact, the Apostle Paul warns of a great false prophet that will stand in the holy place: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).

A great false prophet will work amazing miracles and deceive millions of people. He will cultivate worship toward himself, and claim that he is divine. Scripture describes a symbolic creature that appears like a lamb (the symbol for Christ) but speaks as a dragon (the symbol of Satan the Devil). This is the great religious power that will guide an end-time revival of the Roman Empire. “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived” (Revelation 13:11–14).

This Antichrist will even call down fire from heaven! These deceiving miracles will excite millions—but will also lead many away from the true Jesus Christ of the Bible. You must not let yourself become deceived. The prophet Isaiah explained a test by which we can recognize God’s true servants: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). In other words, true servants of Christ will speak according to the word of God, the Bible! You need to know your Bible, and study your Bible. Prove and test all things, as it tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21!

The end-time religio-political power dominating Jerusalem will cause the sacrifices to cease. Remember that the Jews have not offered animal sacrifices since 70ad, when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. In order for the end-time sacrifices to be stopped eventually, they need to begin! When animal sacrifices begin once again in Jerusalem, you will know that the prophecies Jesus spoke about are heading for a climax!

Three Prophetic Milestones

When the abomination of desolation prophesied by Jesus is set up, three prophetic milestones will follow over a period of three and one-half years: the Great Tribulation, the Heavenly Signs and the Day of the Lord. This prophetic framework helps us understand end-time developments in the Middle East, and how they affect the world.

Notice that Jesus Himself gives the sequence of events. He warns us about the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24:15, then explains the first prophetic milestone in verses 21 and 22: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” This is a time unique in all history. It is the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7), the time of God’s punishment on the Western nations—including the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (For more information about this informative topic, please write for our free booklet The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy. The Great Tribulation is the time Daniel announces: “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time” (Daniel 12:1).

This is a time of war, persecution, and martyrdom. It is the time when the four horsemen of Revelation 6 intensify their ride. They are given power over “a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8). The fifth seal of Revelation describes the martyrdom of Christians (Revelation 6:9–11).

We then see a second prophetic milestone. The sixth seal reveals frightening, dramatic activity in the sky, or what Scripture calls “the heavenly signs.” The Apostle John wrote: “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place” (Revelation 6:12–14).

Jesus also confirms this sequence of tribulation followed by great signs in the heavens: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29).

How will human beings react to these heavenly signs? “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'” (Revelation 6:15–17).

The heavenly signs announce the time of God’s judgment on the nations, “the great day of His wrath.” This is the seventh seal, the period of time also called the Day of the Lord—a thirdprophetic milestone. In vision, the Apostle John refers to it in Revelation 1:10 as “the Lord’s Day.” John is referring not to a day of the week, but to the time period leading up to the return of Christ—as mentioned in more than 30 prophecies! The prophet Isaiah describes it this way, “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8).

The prophet Joel also confirms that the heavenly signs precede the Day of the Lord. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:30–31).

The seventh seal, or the Day of the Lord, consists of seven trumpet plagues: “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets” (Revelation 8:1–2). The first six trumpets sound during the year preceding Christ’s second coming. The seventh trumpet announces the good news of Christ’s return to rule all nations on planet earth: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!'” (Revelation 11:15). While this is good news to genuine Christians, the nations will be angry (verse 18) and will actually gather their military force to fight against the returning King (Revelation 19:19). As we will see, that final battle will be fought in the Middle East, near Jerusalem.

The good news is that the returning Jesus Christ will conquer all the rebellious armies and nations of planet Earth. The returning King of kings will set up His Kingdom in Jerusalem, conquer His enemies and enforce lasting world peace (cf. Zechariah 14:1–3). Jesus Christ will come back to Jerusalem. He will rule over all the kingdoms, nations, and governments of this earth. “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be; ‘The Lord is one,’ and His name one” (v. 9). The Messiah will be King over all the earth, and will govern from Jerusalem. He will establish true religion over all the earth, replacing the false religion that dominated the revived Roman Empire.

Who Rides the Beast?

We have seen that the Middle East will be the location of a modern-day fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy concerning the “abomination of desolation.” When that end-time abomination comes, what religious system will dominate it? The book of Revelation refers to the great false end-time religion as Mystery Babylon. In Revelation 17, the Apostle John sees in vision the judgment of a great harlot, which symbolizes a great false church or religious system. “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:1–2). This woman rides a “beast” that has seven heads and ten horns (v. 3). That “beast,” as we have seen earlier, is the political and military power that will invade the Middle East.

John continues, describing this great harlot: “And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:5). That system will dominate the great tribulation period. The leader of that system, the false prophet, will even call down fire from heaven as we read in Revelation 13:13. Do not let yourself be deceived by such “miraculous” displays. Revelation 13:11 tells us that this religious figure symbolically looks like a lamb (the symbol of Christ) but speaks as a dragon! He will stand in Jerusalem’s holy place and even claim that he is God!

In Revelation 17, we saw that the harlot rides the “beast.” But who is this “beast”? The answer will tell us who will invade the Middle East. “The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:11–14).

The Church of God has for years pointed out that the end-time “Beast power” of Revelation will be a final revival of the ancient Roman Empire. That empire continued from about 31bc to 476ad. There were six revivals, including the Imperial Restoration under Justinian in 544ad and another revival led by Charlemagne in 800ad. (For more information about this prophesied “Beast power,” please write for our free booklet The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality?)

Other commentators have also identified the beast of Revelation as the Roman Empire. We just read in Revelation 17:11 of the final end-time revival of “the beast that was, and is not”—the final beast that goes into “perdition” or destruction. The New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible makes this comment concerning the beast of verse 11: “The beast spoken of here seems to be the Roman Empire, as in chapter 13.”

The book of Revelation, Jesus’ Olivet prophecy and the book of Daniel, together reveal a coming revival of the Roman Empire influenced and ridden by a woman. The woman is symbolic of a church. The “beast power” eventually turns on the woman: “And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:16–18). Again, the Douay-Rheims translation comments on the ultimate destruction of the woman by the beast: “ten other kingdoms are allies of the beast and battle against the Church. But their dominion is short, typified as an hour.” While the Douay-Rheims identifies the beast with the Roman Empire and the woman with the Church, it does not admit that the great city mentioned in verse 18 is Rome itself. However, many Bible commentaries plainly agree that the great city of Revelation 17:18 is, in fact, Rome!

The King of the North Invades the Middle East

The armies of Benito Mussolini—a 20th century “king of the North”—invaded North Africa during World War II. In contrast, the end-time king of the North will be provoked by the king of the South. We have already seen war in the Middle East over the issue of oil. Will there be another Arab oil embargo like that of 1974?

When fuel costs began to rise in the summer and fall of 2000, European protests of skyrocketing petroleum prices and shortages were even more vigorous than in the U.S. In 2000, imports accounted for 53 percent of U.S. oil consumed. Roughly 24 percent—almost half of all oil imported—came from the Middle East. Europe is even more dependent on Middle East oil, importing approximately 90 percent of its oil—well over half from the Middle East.

When gasoline prices spiked in mid-2008, millions were reminded again of their dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Will Europe let Middle Eastern oil suppliers hold their economies hostage? Whatever the provocation, the king of the North will invade the Middle East.

Luke’s account of the Olivet prophecy follows the same general sequence as the account in Matthew that we reviewed earlier. But he adds one important detail, Jesus’ warning sign concerning the end-time fate of Jerusalem: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near” (Luke 21:20). Whose armies are these? Who will eventually invade the Middle East and control Jerusalem—its most significant city?

As we saw earlier, the king of the North—the “beast power” or revived end-time Roman Empire—will enter the Glorious Land (Daniel 11:41). Jesus said that when you see armies encompassing or surrounding Jerusalem, you will know that the city is about to be captured. In 70ad, Titus and the Roman armies destroyed the city and the temple. The Roman siege of the city caused famine and disease within it. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that “no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered” (Wars of the Jews, Bk. 5, chap. 13, sec. 7). Which army brought disaster upon Jerusalem? The army of Rome did. Will another Roman army repeat history in the 21st century? Bible prophecy says “yes”!

The book of Luke also emphasizes that Jerusalem will be controlled by another superpower. Notice Jesus’ powerful statement: “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:21–22).

This clearly is the end-time fulfillment of this prophecy. It continues: “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (vv. 23–24). Revelation 11 shows that Christ will intervene 42 months after Jerusalem is captured.

Some Bible commentators mistakenly believe that Luke’s prophecy applies only to the first century ad, when the Roman commander Titus besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Jesus’ warning in Luke 21 certainly did apply to this first century desolation. But as Bible students recognize, prophecy is often dual. There is type and ante-type. There is a former fulfillment and a later fulfillment of the prophecy. Jesus told His disciples that, following the desolation of Jerusalem, many would see His return to earth. “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:25–27).

This prophecy was not fulfilled in 70ad by Titus’ destruction of the temple. Jesus was clearly outlining the events preceding His second coming. The context of Jerusalem’s final desolation, as presented here, is the end-time.

The Final Phases of World War III

The king of the North’s armies will occupy northern Africa and the holy land. But developments in the northeast so disturb this king that he takes military action. Daniel 11:44, “But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.”

This action appears to be described in Revelation 9 as the first woe or the fifth trumpet plague (cf. Revelation 8:13; 9:1). The Apostle John describes 21st century warfare in first century imagery: “The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon” (Revelation 9:7–11).

Notice that this action takes up five months during the year-long Day of the Lord. What follows next? A massive 200 million-man army from the east crosses the Euphrates River. The Euphrates River runs from Turkey through Syria and Iraq to the Persian Gulf. Whether or not Iraq even continues to exist as a nation in its present form, the geographical area of Iraq will play a major geographical role in the final war to come: World War III! The second woe, or the sixth trumpet now sounds. “One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things. Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm” (Revelation 9:12–19).

This phase of World War III will kill one-third of all humanity, over two billion human beings! The “fire, smoke, and brimstone” evokes images of nuclear devastation. Unless Jesus Christ intervenes, “no flesh would be saved,” as He said in Matthew 24:22!

The final and seventh trumpet announces the return of Jesus Christ to rule the earth (Revelation 11:15). The nations are angry, as we saw earlier (Revelation 11:18), and will combine their armies to fight a common foe, the Commander of Heaven’s armies (see Revelation 19:19)! The seventh trumpet or the third woe consists of “the seven last plagues” that complete “the wrath of God” on rebellious nations (see Revelation 15:1, 8; 16:1).

At this point, eastern armies will move westward over the Euphrates River on their way to Megiddo—Armageddon. “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared” (Revelation 16:12). Satan and his demons influence warring nations to gather their forces against the invader from outer space, the King of kings, Jesus Christ. The Apostle John writes: “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:13–14).

As the final phase of World War III begins, Satan will have influenced the kings and armies “of the whole world” to prepare for the great battle against Christ. Warring, rebellious nations will fight against the Savior of the world! Where will they gather? “And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16). The name Armageddon comes from the Hebrew har Magedon, which means “the hill of Megiddo.” Megiddo is located in modern Israel about 55 miles north of Jerusalem. The hill or mount of Megiddo overlooks the largest valley in Israel, the Plain of Esdraelon, or the Valley of Jezreel.

The developing European religio-political power will eventually exert controlling influence over the Holy Land. As we have seen, the leader of that union, the “king of the North,” will ultimately dominate Jerusalem and the Middle East. The book of Revelation also predicts a conflict between Asian forces and the European “Beast power,” the king of the North (Daniel 11:44). Shockingly, just before Christ’s return, these armies will combine as they are “gathered together to make war against Him” (Revelation 19:19). God Almighty says: “For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:2). Then “the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east” (Zechariah 14:3–4). Jesus Christ will intervene! He will stop World War III and will ultimately bring lasting peace to the world!

Notice that the climactic end-time battle that is popularly referred to as Armageddon is actually called “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14). But where will that battle be fought? The prophet Joel tells us that this climactic battle will take place near Jerusalem: “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there” (Joel 3:1–2).

The Valley of Jehoshaphat is also called the Kidron Valley (between the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount). Here, God will judge the nations. The valley widens to the south, and through it the world’s armies will move southward from Megiddo to fight Jesus Christ at Jerusalem. At this great climactic battle of all ages, the Creator God will prevail, defeating puny humans in their attempt to conquer God.

Foolish military leaders will quickly learn how powerless they are against the omnipotent, divine power of God! Notice the horrible punishment wrought on those rebellious, evil armies: “And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths” (Zechariah 14:12).

Jesus will totally conquer the greatest military combine ever assembled. He will return as King of kings and Lord of lords to bring this war-torn planet a thousand years of peace. “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth” (v. 9).

Christ will conquer all the armies opposing Him! He will usher in the Millennium of peace on earth, and teach all nations the way to peace. Then the Arabs and Israelis will be reconciled. “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria; a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance'” (Isaiah 19:23–25).

After the world’s armies have been defeated, the Creator God will establish Jerusalem as the capital of the world. All nations will submit to the Kingdom of God on earth and finally learn the way to peace. “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:1–2).

The King of kings, assisted by the saints, will reeducate the nations to live the way of love, peace and prosperity (see Daniel 7:18, 27). Under the rulership of Jesus Christ—the Messiah—the way of sin, suffering and war will pass away. “He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Micah 4:3).

Watch the Middle East

Jesus Christ warns us to be spiritually alert and watchful (Luke 21:36). But for what should we be watching in the turmoil and conflict of the Middle East?

Watch for increasing demand for international intervention and control, not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but in Jerusalem itself. Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has supported calls for a United Nations peacekeeping force in Gaza and the West Bank—a proposal the rival Hamas has heretofore rejected. As violence escalates in the region around Jerusalem, watch for more world leaders to join in demanding international control of this ancient city held dear by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

Watch for continuing conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians may be divided in their allegiance between the more militant Islamic Hamas organization and the more secular Fatah group, but they are united in their opposition to Israel’s exertion of power in a region they consider their own.

Watch for increasing unity among Arab nations in their stand against Israel. Psalm 83, which we read earlier, lists those peoples who comprise Arabic and Muslim nations in the Middle East. They are supported by European groups in their strong opposition to Israel. “They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have consulted together with one consent; they form a confederacy against You” (Psalm 83:4–5). Watch for an end-time Arab/Muslim union or confederacy forming against Israel.

Watch for the European Union’s growing economic, political and military unification. As we saw in Daniel’s prophecy, the king of the North will eventually occupy the Holy Land. Europe is moving to coordinate and unify its various military and security forces, seeking an alternative to its long-standing dependence on its NATO alliance which includes the U.S. as a dominant partner. In July 2005, EU foreign ministers agreed to establish a “European Security and Defense College” to organize and conduct multinational training that would bring Europeans from different countries under one consistent policy and procedure framework. In November 2004, after five years of planning, the EU officially established a Rapid Reaction Force that would allow the multinational entity to carry out military objectives. A small deployment has already occurred in Bosnia. Current plans allow for a maximum deployment of 60,000–80,000 EURRF troops. Will these forces eventually play a significant part in the Middle East conflict? Watch the development of Europe’s own military forces.

Watch for the preparation and eventual implementation of animal sacrifices by the Jews in Jerusalem. Many believe a physical temple will also be built, but history and the book of Ezra confirm that sacrifices can be conducted with just an altar at the holy place.

Watch for the increasing consolidation of religious power in Europe. Visiting Austria in 1983, Pope John Paul II appealed for European unity, stating: “Europeans should overcome the menacing international confrontations of states and alliances, and create a new united Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals” (The Principality and Power of Europe, Adrian Hilton, p. 36). Pope Benedict XVI has called for religious unity in Europe, and has reached out to the Eastern Orthodox churches to a degree that has surprised many observers.

Ultimate Peace

Jerusalem has a glorious prophesied future ahead! It will be the capital of planet earth under the rulership of the Prince of Peace and King of kings, Jesus Christ. That is good news for all the nations—for you, your children and your grandchildren. But we need to remember that true peace can only come about in the lives of men and women when their human nature gives way to God’s Spirit. In the Millennium and beyond, the vast majority of people will accept God’s gift of His Spirit. Then they shall learn how to find the way to peace.

The whole world will learn God’s ways. “Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:3–4).

Jerusalem will not only be the governmental capital of the world; it will also be the educational capital of the world. The great Educator and Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, will teach true knowledge based on the Word of God. All nations will learn the eternal principles, laws and values that guarantee peace and prosperity to all.

This is the good news of your future, and the future of the world. At the heart of the Middle East—and of the entire world—Jerusalem will be the center of world government, education, and religion. The Creator God will guarantee future world peace (Micah 4:1–3), “for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken” (v. 4). We all look forward to the peace and reconciliation that only the Messiah, Jesus Christ, can bring to the Middle East—and to the whole world. In the meantime, Jesus tells us to watch and pray (Mark 13:33). He exhorts us in verse 37: “And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

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Prophecy

Revelation: The Mystery Unveiled!

4uwzvo — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 21:20:46 +0000

Revelation: The Mystery Unveiled! 4uwzvo Mon, 02/28/2022 - 21:20

Revelation: The Mystery Unveiled!

John H. Ogwyn (1949-2005)

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#Beast of Revelation

#False Christianity

#Revelation

Many consider Revelation the most difficult-to-understand book in the Bible. Some dismiss its complicated narrative and vivid descriptions as mere allegory. Others assume that it recounts past history. The truth, however, is far more remarkable: if you understand Revelation, you can know the future of our world!

Can You Know the Future?

Can you really know what the future holds? Many people are beset with anxiety and uncertainty about the years ahead. Are you? Our world is filled with widely varying predictions of what lies ahead in this 21st century. Whose predictions are correct? How can you possibly be sure?

Did you know that One claiming to be the Almighty Creator dares to proclaim the future in advance? God asserts that He declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), and that His purpose shall stand. The Bible declares that human life is not a purposeless existence caused by blind chance or evolution. We are part of a planned creation, and there is a great purpose being worked out in our world. You can understand that purpose!

Today, terrorist threats grip the Western world and preoccupy many people’s thinking. Many worry about “rogue states” that may possess nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction. Will we face the ravaging ecological disasters predicted by many environmentalists, or will dazzling futuristic technology finally solve mankind’s age-old problems?

Politicians regularly describe what they think lies ahead. Think tanks and analysts seek to point the way to the future, though disagreeing widely in their conclusions. Add to that the best-selling religious novels that claim to tell you what the Bible foretells. How can you possibly know what the future holds?

The book of Revelation is undoubtedly the most mysterious book in the Bible. Shrouded in symbols, it is a book that is absolutely closed to most people. Yet, over the years, readers have purported to find just about anything currently happening around them somewhere in its pages.

Is it true, as some claim, that you can prove virtually anything by the Bible? The answer is emphatically “No!”—if you take it in context and let the Bible interpret itself.

The ancient prophet Daniel was given an outline of what the future held, from his day (in the sixth century BC) until the time when Christ would finally establish the Kingdom of God on earth (cf. Daniel 2, 7). In addition, Daniel was given several specific prophecies that related to “the time of the end.” Daniel greatly desired to understand the meaning of those intriguing prophecies, yet he could not. They were sealed up until “the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4, 9).

God’s time for us to understand these prophecies has arrived! We are now in the time of the end—described as a time when “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” In the last century, and especially since World War II, we have seen a transportation revolution and a knowledge explosion. In just 66 years, mankind went from the Wright brothers’ first flight to Neil Armstrong walking on the moon!

The Old Testament book of Daniel reveals prophecies of the end-time—recorded, but sealed. The New Testament book of Revelation depicts Jesus Christ opening the seals to reveal the future to His true servants (Revelation 1:1; 5:5). In other words, it is now possible to understand the future with clarity.

Millions have wondered if they will perish in a terrible world war. Others have wondered whether Christ might come at any time, and they may find themselves “left behind.” Do you know the answers to these questions? You can know! The answers to these and other questions are recorded in the final book of your Bible—the book of Revelation. This mysterious book, understood by very few, can become clear to you. There are vital keys that will make it possible for you to understand what even many of the prophets of old desired to know, but were denied.

Does that sound incredible? Well, it is true! If you really want to know what lies ahead in the 21st century, then read on.

Seven Keys to Understanding

Most scholars, surprisingly, do not truly understand the Bible. All you have to do is to read some articles in theological journals, or read some of the many books in print on religious and theological subjects, to see the utter confusion that abounds. Holding widely divergent views, religious authors contradict one another in a way and to an extent seen among writers on virtually no other subject. Do you know why?

The most important single key to understanding the Bible is the attitude in which you approach it. The Bible is God’s book, and only those who approach it as God’s book have any real hope of understanding its message. “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor [humble] and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). The Creator claims that His word is generally hidden from the “wise and prudent” but is revealed to “babes” (Matthew 11:25). God is not talking about babies in age or understanding, but rather those with a simple, humble, teachable attitude that one might call “childlike.”

Along with this humble and teachable outlook must be a willingness to actually obey God. “A good understanding have all those who do His commandments,” the psalmist declares (Psalm 111:10). The natural or carnal mind is “enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). It is rebellious against God’s law and wants its own way. Many religious people talk about “knowing the Lord” but, as Paul told Timothy, have a mere form of religion, while denying the Bible’s authority to rule and regulate their lives (2 Timothy 3:5).

If you will approach the Bible in a humble and teachable way, and are truly willing to obey God and keep His commandments, the following keys will make the book of Revelation come alive before your very eyes. You can have this seemingly mysterious book’s message open up to you in a way you probably never thought possible.

Key 1—Christ Is the Revelator

In some Bibles, the book of Revelation is titled “The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.” It is important to remember that this title was added by men, and is not in the original text. In fact, the very first verse flatly contradicts this humanly devised title, explaining that this book is the direct revelation of Jesus Himself, which He received from the Father.

When Jesus Christ walked the earth, He frequently talked about the future. However, He never did so in a speculative or wishful sense. He spoke authoritatively, because He had come directly from the Father and spoke the words that the Father gave Him, not mere human ideas (John 14:24).

Jesus Christ came with a message: the good news about God’s coming kingdom and how we could become part of that kingdom (Mark 1:14–15). Yet when He was here on earth almost 2,000 years ago, He did not establish that kingdom. Only days before His crucifixion, as He traveled to Jerusalem one last time, He spoke a parable to His disciples, who mistakenly thought that the kingdom would immediately appear. Jesus told a story about a young nobleman who first had to go away into a far country to be invested with kingly power, before returning to possess his kingdom (Luke 19:11–12).

How excited would you be if you had the opportunity to ask Jesus Christ in personabout the events that would precede His return and the establishment of His kingdom? Some of the 12 apostles did have exactly that opportunity! Jesus’ answer is preserved in the parallel accounts of Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, in what is often called the Olivet Prophecy. Seated privately with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, a hill just east of Jerusalem, Jesus described the signs of His future coming, and the end of this current age. In this Olivet Prophecy, Jesus used plain language to describe many events that would later figure in the apostle John’s symbolic visions, when he opened Revelation’s seven seals. In Revelation, as in the Gospels, it is vital to remember that Christ is the Revelator.

Key 2—Start With the Text

Many who study Bible prophecy will first look at the world around them, then look at certain Bible symbols or descriptions in order to find something that “fits.” In doing so, they have simply read their world’s current events back into Scripture. This is a backwards approach.

If we want to understand God’s revelation to mankind, we must start with Scripture and understand the story flow that God lays out. We cannot understand John’s description of a mysterious “beast” in Revelation 13, unless we look at what else Scripture has to say on the matter. We need to look at the earlier inspired information on this subject, given in the book of Daniel. Daniel, after all, recorded the divinely inspired foretelling of the rise and fall of great powers between his day (the sixth century BC) and the final establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth.

We have to let the Bible interpret itself, rather than trying to read our own preconceived notions or current world events back into the text. Only in this way can we see Bible prophecies in their proper context.

Key 3—The Purpose of Revelation

Modern scholars disagree about what they consider the purpose of the book of Revelation. However, careful Bible students will see that the book’s very first verse describes its purpose! Jesus Christ gave Revelation to John so that he might show the servants of God the things that must shortly come to pass (Revelation 1:1). It was intended as a revealing or unveiling of the future. It was given so that God’s true servants could understand where world events are headed, and could know what the future holds. It was a message of encouragement to God’s people, showing that—even in the midst of turmoil and persecution—they need not become anxious about the future. God the Father allowed Christ to unveil, through John, the final culmination of future world events.

Therefore, it is wrong to think that Revelation is merely a vague allegory about good versus evil, or that it simply describes the historical circumstances and difficulties faced by first-century Christians. The entire book must be understood as laying out the future in advance.

Key 4—The Day of the Lord

Most commentators completely misunderstand Revelation 1:10. As a result, they do not understand the perspective from which the entire book was written. When John declared that he was in the Spirit in the Lord’s Day (Note that, elsewhere in the New Testament, the Greek word en is almost always translated “in,” though many wrongly render it here as “on”), he was not talking about the day of the week on which he received the prophecy. Rather, he was describing the future prophetic time that he saw in vision—a time when God will intervene powerfully in end-time world affairs. John’s perspective in writing Revelation was this vision of the future.

The Bible nowhere defines the first day of the week as “the Lord’s Day.” That usage developed among the early Roman Catholic “church fathers,” decades after Revelation was written. However, more than 30 times in the Old Testament, the future time of God’s judgment is called the “Day of the Lord.” When you look at the contents of Revelation, it is clear that the time of Christ’s coming is the focal point of the visions John saw.

The time of God’s future intervention and judgment is the theme that runs throughout Revelation. John wrote from that future perspective. Notice that in Revelation 1:12, when John saw the lampstands representing God’s Church through the ages, he looked behind him to do so. From the perspective of John’s vision, Church history was almost completely in the past.

Key 5—What John Recorded

Revelation 1:2 shows us that John wove together three strands of vital information—the “word of God… the testimony of Jesus Christ, and… all the things that he saw.”

The Old Testament authors used, as a standard phrase, “the word of the LORD came, saying” or “the word of God came, saying” (cf. 1 Kings 12:22; 13:9). When Revelation was written, “the word of God” primarily referred to what we now call the Old Testament.

More than 100 times throughout Revelation—more often than in any other New Testament book—John either quotes or paraphrases verses from the Old Testament. Most Old Testament prophets simply recorded God’s messages in the order that they received them. If you only had the Old Testament, you would be totally at a loss to fit many of the Old Testament prophecies into a clear time frame. But by weaving references throughout, John enables us to see where these different messages, previously recorded by the prophets, fit into God’s plan for the future.

The “testimony of Jesus Christ” describes the good news that Jesus brought from heaven. His “testimony” is simply what He bore witness to. In the book of Revelation, Christ’s direct testimony is primarily found in the messages to the seven churches.

Revelation 19:10 tells us that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” This means that the gospel message gives life and breath to prophecy. If you do not understand the gospel message that Jesus taught, then you certainly cannot understand prophecy. As we read through Revelation, we find John alluding to Jesus’ words in the Gospels, and also recording what he heard Jesus say during his visions.

In addition to weaving together strands from both the Old and New Testaments, John recorded a series of visions of the future. Some visions were filled with mysterious symbols, while others pictured events and weapons so far beyond his day that John struggled to find words to describe what he saw. For example, he could only compare futuristic weapons to first-century objects with which he and his readers were familiar.

Key 6—The Bible Interprets Its Own Symbols

To properly understand Scripture, we must let the Bible interpret itself. Most of the Bible is written as a straightforward narrative account, though some parts—such as Psalms and Proverbs—rely on poetic imagery. Revelation and some of the Old Testament prophets, particularly Daniel and Zechariah, describe symbolic visions. However—and this is a vital key—the Bible interprets its own symbols. When John saw the seven lampstands and seven stars recorded in Revelation 1, for instance, he was told that the seven lampstands represented seven churches and that the stars represented angels (v. 20).

Daniel not only recorded symbolic visions of a great image (Daniel 2) and of creatures emerging from the sea (Daniel 7), but he also gave the interpretation of these symbols. He explained to King Nebuchadnezzar that the great image with a head of gold, chest of silver, thighs of brass and legs of iron represented four successive world-ruling empires that would stretch from the days of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon all the way down to the future time when the God of heaven would set up a kingdom that would endure forever (2:31–44). The nightmarish creatures Daniel saw in Daniel 7 are also interpreted to represent the same succession of world-ruling governments that will conclude with the future establishment of the Kingdom of God (7:17, 23–27).

Elsewhere in Revelation, we read of symbols such as a dragon, a lamb, women, mountains and horns. Again the Bible interprets its own symbols. Revelation 12:9 identifies the dragon as a symbol of Satan the devil. This hearkens back to Genesis 3, which records Satan’s appearance in the guise of a serpent. In John 1:29, John identifies the “lamb” as symbolic of Jesus Christ. The Bible pictures the true Church as a woman—Christ’s virgin bride (2 Corinthians 11:2, Revelation 19:7–8)—so a harlot, or “fallen woman,” represents a false church that has not been faithful to Christ. Mountains represent kingdoms or governments (17:9–10), while horns represent kings or rulers (vv. 12–13). We will never properly understand Revelation unless we are willing to let the Bible explain its own symbols rather than relying on human imagination.

Key 7—The Book of Revelation Is Primarily in Time Sequence

In Revelation 5, John saw a vision of One (clearly God the Father) sitting upon the throne in heaven, holding a scroll sealed with seven seals. The only One authorized to open the seals, and therefore to reveal the contents, was Jesus Christ. A scroll must be unrolled sequentially, and the seals must be broken one at a time to reveal what comes next. This vital key, when properly understood, makes plain that the book of Revelation is written in chronological order. While there are a few “insets” that go back and let a reader “catch up” on certain events, Revelation’s narrative flows chronologically.

The opening of the seven seals begins in Revelation 6. When the seventh seal is opened in Revelation 8, the seven trumpets begin to sound. After the seventh trumpet is blown, seven angels are given seven bowls containing God’s wrath to pour out.

Understanding this key point clears up many issues. It also sheds light on events such as the mysterious sealing of the 144,000 recorded in Revelation 7. In context, we can understand that this is a yet future event—not something that happened in the past. The book of Revelation allows us to view all the prophecies of the Bible in their proper time sequence, and to have an overview of God’s plan from start to finish.

With these keys in mind, we can proceed to examine the contents of Revelation itself.

A Final Vision for the End of an Era

The close of the first century was a bewildering and discouraging time for many of God’s people. Years earlier, after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Church of God had begun in a very dramatic fashion on Pentecost, 31AD. Three thousand people were baptized on that day. In the months that followed, the number of disciples multiplied greatly. God’s miraculous intervention was evident on a regular basis.

Three decades later, however, the situation seemed to have changed. God’s people were discouraged and confused by events both in the Church and on the world scene. In 62AD, Jesus’ brother James, who served as leader of the Jerusalem Church, was killed by a mob in Jerusalem. A few years later, the Roman government arrested Paul and transported him to Rome a second time, this time to be executed. Soon after, the Jerusalem Church had to flee the city to escape advancing Roman armies. By 70AD, both Jerusalem and its magnificent temple lay in ruins, destroyed by General Titus and his army. Nearly all the original leaders of the Church were dead. The only original apostle still alive was the aged John. After 70AD he made Ephesus, located in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) near the Mediterranean coast, his primary base of operations.

Around 96AD, the Roman government arrested this elderly apostle and banished him to the isle of Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor (Revelation 1:9). Patmos was a place where political prisoners were exiled, and from which few ever returned. For someone of John’s advanced age, exile to a prison island must have seemed like a sentence of certain death. But it was in this context that John was given the visions that were to be recorded in the final book of the Bible.

God used John, almost 30 years after the deaths of the other original leaders of the Church, to complete the New Testament. John carried out this commission by writing a fourth Gospel and three letters, all probably completed before his Patmos exile, and finally by writing the book of Revelation. As such, John was responsible for putting the New Testament into its final form.

The Final Message

God the Father has reserved authority over the times and seasons of human history (Acts 1:7). The ebb and flow of the tide of world events is not simply a matter of chance. The rise and fall of great powers is not just determined by human decisions. Rather, God established limits for the roles of various nations. These limits include both length of time on the world stage and the extent of their geographic dominance (17:26).

Though God the Father has determined the nations’ roles in advance, how can we possibly understand unless He chooses to reveal them? It was precisely at the end of the first century that the Father did just that. He gave Jesus Christ an unveiling of what had previously been hidden, that Christ in turn would reveal to the Church. Christ did this by sending an angel to the aged apostle on Patmos (Revelation 1:1). Through a series of visions at the end of an era, John was allowed to see the future—and to record it in advance.

The book of Revelation is an unveiling. The English word “revelation” comes from the Greek word we also render as “apocalypse”—literally meaning a “revealing” or an “unveiling.” While the future is veiled and mysterious to human beings, it is plain to God. Man tries in vain to look through the mists of time to perceive what the future might bring. But while men can only guess, the great God who inhabits eternity is able to declare, from the very beginning, what the end will be.

As an elderly man, in exile on Patmos, John had the most remarkable experience of his long life. In a vision, he saw himself transported into the future, to the time of God’s impending intervention and judgment, which the Old Testament calls “the Day of the Lord.” Hearing a powerful voice behind him, John turned to gaze upon seven golden lampstands, then saw One, whose face shone like the sun in its full strength, standing in the midst of those lampstands. Absolutely overwhelmed by what he saw, John collapsed in a faint. The One he saw standing there was the very One with whom he had walked and talked as a young man; the One beside whom he had sat and upon whom he had leaned at their last Passover meal together. John had last seen Him about 65 years earlier, when he stood with the other disciples on the Mount of Olives, gazing up and watching Him disappear into the clouds. As John lay collapsed, that One reached down and touched him gently with His hand. “Do not be afraid, John,” He declared, “It is Me.” Christ went on to reveal Himself to John as the One who is the first and the last, the One who was dead but is now alive forevermore. John was then told to write down what he had seen and what would yet be shown to him.

This final book in your New Testament, then, is Jesus Christ’s unveiling of the future—your future! It is a book written as Christ’s final message to His Church, showing what will happen. Though most people have considered it a mysterious and closed book, it can now be open to your understanding. If you really want to know what lies ahead, then keep reading!

Setting the Scene

Revelation’s first chapter sets the scene, and provides an introduction to the book. As we have already seen, the Day of the Lord (Revelation 1:10) is the time setting from which events in the book are viewed. From this standpoint, John saw behind him the lampstands representing the seven churches, symbolizing God’s Church down through the ages.

Remember, Revelation was given as a prophecy to show God’s servants what would come to pass. Therefore, the messages to the seven congregations (Revelation 2–3) are far more than a mere historical account of circumstances extant in the last decade of the first century. These seven churches in Asia Minor represent the stages (or eras) through which the true Church would pass before Christ’s return.

After receiving the messages to the seven congregations, John received in Revelation 4—in vision—an invitation to come up to heaven. He described God’s throne in heaven, and noted that the One sitting on it held a sealed scroll in His hand. There was no one worthy to break the seals and open the book except Jesus Christ—the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah. As Christ, the Revelator, opened the seals one by one, John was invited to come and look. Beginning in Revelation 6, he described what he saw when each seal was opened.

The first six of the seven seals are opened in Revelation 6. Revelation 7 tells of a pause before the opening of the seventh seal. During that pause in the action, 144,000 servants of God are sealed to ensure their protection from the plagues of the Day of the Lord that would follow.

The story continues in Revelation 8 with the opening of the seventh seal. When that seal is opened, John watches as seven angels are given seven trumpets, which they sound one after another. The first four trumpet blasts are revealed as ecological disasters. Revelation 9 describes the blowing of the fifth and sixth trumpets, and the dramatic military events that unfold in their aftermath.

Revelation 10 recounts a pause in the action before the seventh and final trumpet is sounded. At this point John is given a small scroll, which he is symbolically to eat, and he is told that more prophecies concerning nations and rulers must be delivered. Revelation 11 opens by describing what the Two Witnesses—special servants of God at the time of the Great Tribulation—are doing during the three-and-a-half years leading up to Christ’s return.

The seventh trumpet, described in Revelation 11:15, is central to Revelation both in the book’s length and in its importance. It is the “last trump”—the time of the saints’ resurrection to immortality. This verse is vital for understanding the rest of Revelation, because it marks the point at which the saints come out of their graves to enter into glory. The events from this point through the beginning of Revelation 20 all occur within a very short time. Except for inset accounts, the entire period covered by these chapters is after the first resurrection and before the onset of the Millennium.

An inset in the story flow occurs in Revelation 12 and 13. These chapters pick up the story at an earlier period, and bring it up to date, presenting the stories of the Church (Revelation 12) and of the beast (Revelation 13). These contrasting stories of the persecuted and the persecutors need to be understood as the background to the events surrounding Jesus Christ’s return as King of kings.

Revelation 14 and 15 contrast the newly resurrected saints rejoicing in glory, with the final preparation for God’s wrath to be poured out upon rebellious mankind. God will need to punish severely the “sons of disobedience” (cf. Colossians 3:6) and the system that has persecuted His faithful servants through the centuries, because they have refused to respond to previous calls to repentance. Then, in Revelation 16, we learn the details of the pouring out of the seven bowls that contain the fullness of God’s wrath.

Revelation 17 and 18 provide another inset into the story flow, giving an overview of the end-time system called Babylon the Great. This is an alliance of false religion, military-political power and commercial dominance that will hold sway before Christ’s return. Revelation 18 describes this entire system’s absolute destruction.

The first verses of Revelation 19 reveal a celebration at God’s throne. This is the prelude to both the marriage supper of Christ and the Church, and the actual arrival on earth of the all-conquering Jesus Christ to destroy the leaders and armies of Satan-inspired human rebellion against God.

Satan the devil is then placed under restraint for a thousand years (Revelation 20:2) and the remainder of Revelation 20 introduces Christ’s and the saints’ millennial rule on the earth. At the Millennium’s end, the rest of mankind will be resurrected (vv. 11–15).

After reading, at the close of Revelation 20, about the destruction of the incorrigibly wicked in the lake of fire, we learn in Revelation 21 and 22 about the new heaven and new earth that God promises to create. The new Jerusalem will come down to the earth and will be the dwelling place of God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Church. The book of Revelation ends with a look at what God has in store for those who love Him. It leaves us standing on the threshold of eternity with an assurance of the certainty of Christ’s return and the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Having completed this brief overview of the book, we can now examine the story in greater detail, to understand what lies ahead for us and for all mankind.

The Seven Churches

Jesus Christ, the great Revelator, inspired John to record a message to His Church. While there were other Christian congregations in Asia Minor at the first century’s close, seven particular congregations were singled out. The Bible frequently uses numbers in a significant way, and this is certainly true in the book of Revelation.

In the Torah—the first five books of the Bible—we see particular emphasis on two numbers—seven and 12. The number seven denotes completion and perfection, as in the Genesis account of creation, where the seventh day of the week was hallowed and set apart as the Sabbath (Genesis 2:2–3; Exodus 20:11). Later, in Leviticus 23, God gave Israel seven annual festivals that outlined His plan of salvation. Even the economic life of ancient Israel was regulated by cycles of seven years. The sabbatical year came every seventh year, during which the land was to lie fallow and personal debt was to be forgiven (Leviticus 25:1–4). The 50-year jubilee cycle came at the end of seven cycles of seven years, marking the time when slaves were to be set free and land was to revert to its original owners (vv. 9–10). Throughout the book of Revelation, the number seven is used over and over. As just some of the many examples, there are seven lampstands, seven churches, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls of wrath and seven heads on the beast.

Genesis introduces the number 12 with Jacob’s 12 sons who gave rise to the 12 tribes of Israel. Throughout the Torah, 12 is used as the number indicating “organizational beginnings.” When we look at Revelation, we again see this same pattern. Revelation 7 recounts the sealing of the 144,000 with 12,000 selected from each of the 12 tribes. It also reveals the New Jerusalem with 12 foundations, named after Jesus’ 12 apostles, and 12 gates named for the 12 tribes. Even the measurements of the city are based on the number 12.

We should take special note when Revelation uses numbers such as seven and 12. The descriptions of seven churches are not coincidental, but are clearly used in a symbolic way to represent the Church in its entirety. Jesus Christ is pictured as standing in the midst of the seven lampstands, which represent far more than a handful of first-century congregations. The cities in which those congregations were located were linked by Roman roads, and were successive stops on an ancient Roman mail route. Each of these seven congregations was used to typify or represent one of the seven successive stages or eras through which the true Church of God would pass from the time of the first century until the time just before Christ’s return. The church at Ephesus, for instance, represented the early Apostolic Church, from its beginnings on Pentecost 31AD until shortly after John’s death. Using this prophecy, the true Church’s story can be traced through the centuries, step by step.

It is beyond the scope of this booklet to offer a detailed history of the seven stages of the Church, but we encourage you to write for our free booklet, God’s Church Through the Ages, to help you understand this important subject. It is fully documented with historical sources to help you see how this remarkable prophecy has been fulfilled. Most commentators are unable to understand this prophecy properly, because they are looking at the wrong church! Not realizing that the Church that Jesus built was never to grow into a large worldly organization, entering into political intrigues and alliances—but was to remain a “little flock” separated from the world—most do not recognize the striking fulfillment of these prophecies.

We should especially note Christ’s words to the last two congregations: Philadelphia and Laodicea. These represent Christ’s true Church at the end time, and understanding His message to them will help make sense of a key prophecy recorded in Revelation 12. In Revelation 3:8, the living Christ tells the Church at Philadelphia that He has set before them “an open door.” Scripture uses the term “open door” to describe an opportunity to proclaim the gospel (cf. Colossians 4:3). Because of their faithful endurance, Philadelphians are promised protection from the great time of severe trial that will come upon the whole world in the end time (Revelation 3:10). By contrast, Christ rebukes the Church at Laodicea, representing the final era, for its lukewarm spirit. Lacking in zeal, Laodicea is beset by compromise with the world, unaware that it is spiritually impoverished and naked. Because of its attitude, the living Christ will have to spew Laodiceans out of His mouth and right into the Great Tribulation, to wake them up and bring them to ultimate repentance and complete surrender to Him. Understanding this distinction between the final two eras allows us to understand prophecies in Revelation 12 that describe Satan’s attempt to make war with the “woman”—the true Church.

At the Throne of God

Beginning in Revelation 4, John is given an astounding privilege. In vision, he is actually invited into the heaven of God’s abode, and is allowed to record some of what he saw. Obviously, pen and paper cannot adequately convey the glory and grandeur of God’s heavenly court, but several features of John’s description do stand out. John does not try to describe the appearance of the great Being on the throne, but does mention the beautiful colors and light surrounding the throne. The lightning and thunder that proceed from the throne are reminiscent of Exodus 19, in which the glory of God came down and settled on Mount Sinai before the giving of the Law.

We then find a description of the vastness of the heavenly court, including the presence of millions of angels (Revelation 5:11). There is a great crystalline expanse upon which the throne sits. From Revelation 15:2, we will learn that the expanse, called a sea of glass, has the appearance of fire embedded within it. Also present are four strange-looking creatures with six wings and the faces of a man, an ox, a lion and an eagle (4:6–8). John’s readers, familiar with the Old Testament, would recognize the similarity of the description of the seraphim recorded in Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6:1–2).

There are 24 elders who sit on 24 smaller thrones surrounding God’s throne. Many have tried to imagine who these elders are and some have tried to identify them with certain men mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. In fact, however, these elders are part of the angelic realm. They play an important part in God’s government (the number 24—12 doubled—makes this plain), probably in managing the millions of angels. God is not the author of confusion, and in heaven has a highly organized realm that is responsive to His will.

Revelation 4:5 mentions “seven lamps” before the throne, defined as the seven spirits of God, whom we are told in Revelation 5:6 are sent forth into all the earth. The ancient prophet Zechariah alluded to the same in Zechariah 4:10, referring to the seven “eyes” that God sends to run to and fro throughout the entire earth. Hebrews 1:7, referring to this created angelic realm, tells us that God “makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.” In some way that we cannot fully fathom, God uses these spirit creatures, which looked to John like flames of fire, to gather information from all over the earth.

Next, John describes Jesus Christ standing before the throne in the midst of this great assembly (Revelation 5:5–6). Here, Christ is described by two symbols: a Lamb who was slain, and the Lion of Judah. The Lamb of God describes Jesus Christ in His sacrificial role, taking our place and dying in our stead. The Lion of Judah describes Him in His kingly role, as the One who will conquer rebellious mankind and sit on the throne of David, ruling over the earth.

Revelation 4 and 5 also allude to an aspect of John’s vision which is developed more fully in later chapters: the heavenly connection with the earthly temple. Remember, the earthly sanctuary was modeled after a heavenly reality (Hebrews 9:24). So, as we go through the book of Revelation and read about the altar of sacrifice, the altar of incense and the heavenly Ark of the Covenant, we should realize that these were the heavenly originals after which the furniture of the tabernacle—and later of the temple—were modeled.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

One of the best-known images from the book of Revelation is of “the four horsemen of the apocalypse.” Though most have heard the term, hardly anyone actually knows who or what it describes. Yet Christ is the Revelator, so in order to understand these symbols we must find where, in Scripture, He explained in plain language the events portrayed here. Is there such a place? Absolutely! It is Christ’s famous response when He was asked what would be the signs of His coming and of the end of the age (Matthew 24:3–31).

In Matthew 24, outlining a scenario that begins with false prophets and proceeds on through war, famine, disease, tribulation and dramatic heavenly signs, Christ describes the events leading up to His return from heaven. The parallel with Revelation 6 is remarkably clear. Notice what John records. He first sees Jesus Christ take the scroll from the Father and open the first seal. When this occurs, an angel tells John to come and look. John then sees a rider on a white horse wearing a crown and holding a bow (Revelation 6:1–2). Many have carelessly assumed that the rider is Christ, since Revelation 19 describes the returned Christ riding a white horse. This assumption could not be more wrong! In Matthew 24, and in the parallel accounts of Mark 13 and Luke 21, Jesus talks about false “Christs.” He says that some “will come in My name” and say that Jesus is the Christ, yet will deceive many. How can someone use Christ’s name, yet deceive people? By substituting a different message in place of the one He actually taught (Mark 7:7)!

History shows that there have been false teachers, wars, diseases, famines and religious persecutions throughout the almost 2,000 years since Jesus Christ spoke those words on the Mount of Olives. What is different about the events occurring after the seals are opened? Revelation 6 reveals that, in the end time, mankind will experience these age-old scourges occurring with far greater magnitude than ever before.

Notice what Paul taught regarding the Day of the Lord and the events surrounding the time of Christ’s return. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, he explained that the Day of the Lord “will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.” Who is that “man of sin”? Down through the centuries, there have been many men of sin and many antichrists (1 John 2:18; 2 John 7). However, the one of whom Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians is the specific one whom Christ will destroy at His coming (v. 8). This connects him with the one labeled the False Prophet, whom Christ will destroy at His return (Revelation 19:20).

2 Thessalonians 2 tells us more about this end-time False Prophet. He will make blasphemous claims, proclaiming his divinity and demanding worship (v. 4), and will work miraculous signs through satanic power (v. 9; cf. Matthew 24:24; Revelation 13:13–14). This final false religious leader, undoubtedly a very smooth and charismatic individual, will cut a dramatic swath on the world scene. He will not label himself as “antichrist,” but rather will present himself as the leader of the entire Christian church.

Remember, Jesus said that individuals would come in His name saying that Jesus is the Christ, not in the name of some false gods or merely in their own names (Matthew 24:5). Paul also explained that Satan appears as an “angel of light,” and that his ministers seek to appear as “ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14–15). The religious system that will yet produce this end-time man of sin was already at work in Paul’s day. Paul called this system the “mystery of lawlessness”—an outgrowth of the old Babylonian mystery religion that promoted the false idea that God’s law was “done away” and no longer need be kept. Though this system of false Christianity was already beginning in the first century, the final man of sin would not be allowed to emerge until the proper time (2 Thessalonians 2:6–7).

When this final False Prophet arises on the world scene, true Christians will be able to recognize exactly where we are in the scope of prophecy. The first seal will have been opened, and its end-time fulfillment will have been manifested. The opening of the other seals will follow quickly thereafter.

Tribulation and Trumpets

Revelation 6:3 records the opening of the second seal, revealing a rider on a red horse. This rider is given a great sword, the symbol of powerful war-making ability. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 24 shows us that this seal portends regional wars and world wars. As we near the end of the age, a great military power will emerge.

Just as the rider on the white horse reminds us of the role that the end-time False Prophet will play, so the rider on the red horse may remind us of the crafty military-political leader who will emerge on the scene in Europe—undoubtedly claiming to be a man of peace. In the name of “peace” he will launch preemptive strikes and wars in the Middle East and even against America and our allies in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In close alliance with the False Prophet, this great military-political leader (called “the Beast” in Revelation 13 and elsewhere) will seek to dominate and control all nations. He will bear responsibility for a final round of warfare that will conclude only in the aftermath of the armies of the world gathering at Armageddon.

Soon after this dramatic upsurge in global strife and warfare, these events will combine with terrible weather upsets to produce massive food shortages and famine. This is pictured by the opening of the third seal, and a rider astride a black horse holding a set of balance scales. While basic foodstuffs (symbolized by barley and wheat) will be sold only in small amounts for vastly inflated prices, luxury items (symbolized by the wine and oil) will still be available for the wealthy. The denarius, or “penny” (KJV), was a day’s wages for laborers in the first century, showing that many ordinary people will be spending all of their earnings just trying to feed themselves and their families.

Disease and pestilential death will follow in the wake of food shortages, symbolized by the rider on the pale horse, revealed at the opening of the fourth seal. This grim rider is pictured as holding sway over a quarter of the earth when he emerges for his end-time ride. The events symbolized by the seals are cumulative and the seals, once opened, remain open.

The Great Tribulation

Jesus warned us of the Great Tribulation—a time unique in all history (Matthew 24:21–22). The Great Tribulation begins shortly after the “abomination of desolation” (v. 15), and is the result of the final end-time fulfillment, in rapid succession, of the first five seals. After the first four seals were opened and John saw the “four horsemen” ride forth for their end-time fulfillment, the fifth seal was opened and he was again called to come and watch. He saw a strange vision that, when properly understood, was the harbinger of terrible religious persecution on a scale that is almost unimaginable to us in the modern Western world. John described seeing “souls under the altar” and hearing them cry out asking God “how long” until they would be avenged. The answer is that the time of God’s judgment on their oppressors will not come until the number of martyrs is filled up. There is to be an end-time martyrdom that must yet take place.

Notice the symbols that John described. As is often the case in Revelation, it is important to understand the symbolism of the Jerusalem temple. What is meant by “souls under the altar”? The Bible uses the term soul (nephesh in Hebrew and psuche in Greek) to refer to creatures with life—both human and animal. Leviticus 17:11 states that the life is in the blood. The blood of sacrificial animals was poured out at the base of the altar of sacrifice, one of two altars in the temple. The altar of sacrifice was outside the sanctuary, and the altar of incense was inside, directly in front of the mercy seat. (In the temple at Jerusalem, before the earthquake that followed Christ’s death, a veil separated the altar of incense from the mercy seat). The altar of sacrifice is the basis of the symbolism used in Revelation 6.

In Genesis 4:10, we are told that the blood of righteous Abel figuratively “cried out” from the ground, demanding retribution from a God of righteous judgment. If the blood of one martyr cried out, with how much louder voice would the collective blood of all the righteous martyrs down through time cry out? In the vision, John heard them being told that they must continue to rest in their graves. More martyrs would die before the time would come for God’s judgment to be poured out.

This future time of trouble will clearly be a time of intense religious persecution, when all will be forced to conform to false religious practices that will be portrayed as “Christian.” All will be required to give their devotion to the great false church and its hierarchy, labeled in Revelation 13:15 the “image of the beast.” An outward sign of conformity called the “mark of the beast” will identify those whom Scripture labels as the children of disobedience.

There is another aspect of this coming Great Tribulation that is often overlooked. It is not only a time of religious persecution but it is also identified as “the time of Jacob’s trouble” in Jeremiah 30:7. We know that this is identical with the time of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 24:21, because in both places we are told that it is a unique time, a time such as never was before nor ever again shall be. There cannot be two separate times like that!

If you are not familiar with the identity of Jacob’s end-time descendants, we invite you to write in for our free booklet, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy. This will give detailed explanation and proof that is beyond the scope of this current booklet. The coming Great Tribulation will be a time of intense pressure and persecution directed against both spiritual Israel (the true Church of God) and physical Israel, which includes not only the Jews, but also the modern descendants of the so-called “lost ten tribes.” It represents Satan’s wrath and begins in deadly earnest once he is cast back to earth for the final time (Revelation 12:12–13).

Prelude to the Day of the Lord

When the sixth seal is opened, John sees dramatic signs in the heavens. He describes great meteor showers—so intense that it appears that the very stars are falling out of the sky! He also describes events, resembling eclipses, involving the sun and the moon. The sun becomes dark, just as during a solar eclipse, and the moon takes on a reddish hue, just as it often does during a lunar eclipse. These dramatic and frightening events, accompanied by massive volcanic and earthquake activity (cf. Joel 2:30–31), are the prelude to the time of the Creator’s intervention, called throughout Scripture “the Day of the Lord.”

At this point, there is a pause in the action before John sees the seventh seal opened. Revelation 7:1–4 makes plain that this pause is for a very specific purpose. Before the outpouring of God’s wrath, 144,000 saints from the 12 tribes of Israel are to be sealed so that they might be spared from what God is preparing to pour out on rebellious mankind.

A parallel can be found in Ezekiel 9, where Ezekiel saw a vision about God’s punishment on the rebellious people of Jerusalem. In the vision, he saw an angel clothed in linen with a writer’s inkhorn by his side standing beside the altar in front of the temple. The angel was told to go throughout the city, putting a mark on the foreheads of those who “sighed and cried” for all of the abominations of Jerusalem. In the wake of the angel with the writer’s inkhorn, the other angels were to go out as avenging angels to slay the rebellious and ungodly. In the same way, Revelation 7 describes that a remnant of Israel will respond to God’s grace with repentance. They are servants of God, and are to be set apart so that they might be spared God’s wrath that will be poured upon the children of disobedience during the coming Day of the Lord.

In the closing verses of Revelation 13, and the opening verses of Revelation 14, we see a contrast drawn between those who accept the mark of the Beast in their foreheads and the 144,000 who have the Father’s name in their foreheads. The forehead is the seat of intellect, and this pictures our choice of obedience—either to God or to Satan.

Many fail to notice that Revelation 7 records two different groups. They are both introduced by the same phrase, “after this I saw,” recorded in verses 1 and 9. The 144,000 drawn from the 12 tribes precede the description of a multitude of indefinite number drawn from every nation and people. This great multitude is described in a victory celebration before the throne of God, an event that is future to the time sequence that John has been describing. In the course of seeing the remnant of Israel sealed before the Day of the Lord, he also was allowed to look even further into the future. Who is this great multitude? Revelation 7:14 defines them as coming out of “the Great Tribulation.” Even though they may have perished as martyrs during that hellish time, thereby representing a completion of the martyrdom foretold in Revelation 6:11, they are actually victors. They will be resurrected in glory and will receive comfort and blessing from the Father and from Christ.

One other observation about the 144,000 should be made. We need to understand that the Day of the Lord is primarily the time of the seventh seal and the year-long period (Isaiah 34:8; 61:2) leading up to Christ’s second coming. But, in another sense, it stretches on into the future to include not only the year of God’s wrath, but also the thousand-year reign of the Messiah, the Great White Throne Judgment period and the introduction of the new heavens and the new earth (2 Peter 3:10–13). There will ultimately be a great harvest, numbering into the billions, brought in during this extended Day of the Lord, but these 144,000 from Israel will represent a firstfruits of those redeemed to their Creator during that time. 144,000 is the number of organized beginnings squared and multiplied a thousandfold. It represents the starting point of the Creator’s harvest of the nations after He has begun His direct intervention in judgment.

The First Four Trumpets Sound

Revelation 8 continues the flow of events that began with the opening of the first seal. In verse 1, John sees the seventh seal opened, as seven angels standing before God are given seven trumpets to be sounded, one by one, signaling God’s judgments. The seventh seal consists of these seven trumpets.

Note the symbolism in Revelation 8:3–5. Ceremonies carried out in the earthly sanctuary from the days of Moses were patterned after this heavenly reality, providing a key to understanding what is being described. In the earthly sanctuary, every morning and every evening after the daily sacrifice had been offered, the priest took fire from the altar of sacrifice and proceeded into the sanctuary to offer incense on the golden altar in the holy place, located “before the mercy seat”—from which it was separated by a veil (Exodus 30:6). As this account and other scriptures show, the incense offering represented the prayers of the saints coming up before God. The mercy seat, located inside the Holy of Holies and over the Ark of the Covenant, was symbolic of God’s throne.

In Revelation 6, we saw that the blood of those martyred down through time called out to God for vengeance. God did not answer that plea earlier, because it was not yet the proper time. In Revelation 8, however, fire from the altar is symbolically slung out upon the earth, and God instructs the seven angelic trumpeters to announce His retribution.

The remainder of Revelation 8 describes the trumpet blasts sounded by the first four angels. Remember, Isaiah 34:8 and Isaiah 61:2 equate the Day of the Lord with the year of God’s recompense. This period begins with the first trumpet and concludes with the last, or seventh, trump. When God gave ancient Israel His Holy Days, He ushered in the entire fall festival season by designating the first day of the seventh month as “a memorial of the blowing of trumpets.” Since other of God’s festivals received their fulfillment on the very day (note Christ’s being offered as the Lamb of God on the day of Passover and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost), it seems likely that the year of God’s recompense will begin and end on the Feast of Trumpets.

As each of the first four angels sound, terrible ecological disasters take place on earth. When the first angel sounds, terrible fires break out, ultimately consuming a third of the green vegetation. Next, a great meteor-like object lands in the ocean and causes one-third of the seas to become red like blood. This causes a third of sea life to die and greatly disrupts shipping and commerce. After the third trumpet, John sees another meteor-like object fall upon one-third of the fresh water rivers and lakes, turning them to poison and causing massive water shortages. When the fourth angel sounds, there follows disruption in the very sky above. Evidently, belts of smoke and debris will block out sight of the sky for one-third of every day. Perhaps this will be caused by massive amounts of smoke from the great fires that engulf virtually one-third of the earth, as well as from debris thrown into the air during increased volcanic eruptions.

The First Two Woes

If these ecological disasters in the opening months of the year of God’s recompense sound devastating, think about the even greater devastation that occurs when the final three angels sound. These last of the seven angels are said to announce the “three woes.” This involves mankind’s unleashing weapons of mass destruction that will imperil the world so severely that if Christ did not return, no flesh would be saved alive (Matthew 24:22).

When the fifth angel sounds his trumpet in Revelation 9:1–2, we find the great abyss opened and demonically inspired forces unleashed. Revelation 17:8 shows us that from this abyss the Beast power symbolically emerges. The forces that are unleashed are first compared to locusts, because John did not have the words to describe modern weapons of mass destruction. Notice that these “locusts” do not harm natural vegetation (which physical locusts would devour), but instead for five months cause incapacitating but not deadly pain—rather like that of scorpions. This describes an attack by the European-led Beast power on the nations of the east, as mentioned in Daniel 11:44.

This surprise attack will provoke a massive Asian retaliation against Europe. This retaliation, signaled by the sixth angel blowing his trumpet, is pictured as spewing out fire, smoke and brimstone, and destroying one-third of humanity (Revelation 9:17–18). This description fits well with modern nuclear weapons and the devastation they can bring.

At the fifth and sixth trumpet blasts, we see that God has removed restraints previously imposed on Satan and his demons. Abaddon or Apollyon, a name for the devil that means “destroyer,” is the one who precipitates the Beast power’s attack with futuristic weapons. Also, we are told that demonic spirits have been associated with the eastern powers that were previously restrained at the Euphrates River. Evidently, the Euphrates will be the dividing line between the eastern and western spheres of influence.

When the sixth angel sounds, two events occur. One is the unleashing of a nuclear attack on Europe, and likely on its Latin American allies as well. The other is the massing of the largest army ever assembled on the east bank of the Euphrates—200 million men (vv. 15–16). At this point, it will have been almost a year since the trumpets began to sound. The earth and its inhabitants will be reeling in what seem to be the very death throes of the planet itself. But this is not the end of the story.

Witnesses and Wrath

Revelation 10 opens with another short pause in the flow of action. After the sixth trumpet, but before the sounding of the final seventh trumpet, John sees an angel come down from heaven to give him a small scroll to eat. This is very similar to the Old Testament passages where Ezekiel is told to ingest the contents of a scroll so that he can deliver its message (Ezekiel 2:8–10; 3:1–3). The angel tells John to eat the contents of this little scroll and deliver yet another prophetic message to the nations and rulers of this world. What is that message? Before the abomination of desolation and the onset of the Great Tribulation, the Philadelphia era of the Church of God will for decades have gone through the “open door” provided by Christ, proclaiming the gospel and the end-time warning message. Near the time when the Church’s organized proclamation of the gospel is shut down, the Two Witnesses will boldly deliver God’s message, and will die in Jerusalem. Yes, there will still remain a message to be delivered to the world in the waning days of Satan’s rule! That is why John is told, after the sixth trumpet has been blown and just before the seventh trumpet sounds (Revelation 10:7), that there yet remains a message to be delivered to nations and rulers. The Two Witnesses, who “prophesy” (Revelation 11:3) and “finish their testimony” (v. 7), along with three angels whom God dispatches after the sounding of the seventh trumpet (14:6–9), all “prophesy again” after John receives the “little book” from the mighty angel.

Matthew 24:15–21 and Luke 21:20–24 make plain that the multinational army described in Zechariah 14:1–2 will have occupied Jerusalem at the onset of the Great Tribulation. By comparing Luke 21:24 with Revelation 11:2, we see that the Beast power will occupy and control Jerusalem for 42 months, or three-and-a-half years. It is right after the False Prophet desecrates the holy place, revealing his idolatrous symbols and blasphemous claims, that God will empower two of His servants, known as the Two Witnesses, to make their public appearance in Jerusalem, two-and-a-half years before the Day of the Lord begins. God will empower them to deliver His message to a world dominated by the power of the Beast and mesmerized by the illusions of the False Prophet.

God will use these two men to perform miracles similar to those performed by Moses and Elijah. They will announce God’s judgments to a world in rebellion against Him, and will confront the power of the Beast and the False Prophet. Throughout the three-and-a-half years of their prophetic career, they will receive God’s supernatural protection, just as Elijah did many centuries earlier (cf. 2 Kings 1:9–14). Finally, God will allow them to be killed. Many will celebrate at their deaths, since the False Prophet will have accused them of causing all of the world’s troubles. Their unburied bodies will lie in Jerusalem’s streets for three-and-a-half days, then they will be restored to life and will rise in the air, disappearing into the clouds while their enemies watch in shocked amazement (Revelation 11:11–12).

The Last Trumpet Sounds

We now come to the mid-point of the book of Revelation and the defining moment of end-time events. What exactly happens when the seventh and final trumpet blast is sounded? Revelation 11:15 states: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!'” According to verse 18, this final trumpet blast signals the time when the final wrath of God will be poured out and when God will begin to judge the dead and give reward to His true servants.

Paul tells us that this event will occur “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). It is a time when the dead in Christ, along with those Christians still alive on earth, will undergo an instantaneous change from mortal to immortal and death will be completely swallowed up in victory. It is called the “first resurrection” in Revelation 20:6, and those who are part of it are called “blessed and holy.” They need never worry about death again, but will rule and reign under Christ Himself as He establishes His thousand-year reign on the earth.

At this point, we should note that those who propound the so-called “rapture” theory do not understand Scripture correctly. The Lord will descend from heaven, and the resurrected saints will be caught up to meet Him in the air, at the seventh and final trump. As we have seen from the story flow of Revelation, this can only occur after all the previously described events have transpired, and is not something that could happen “at any moment” as some mistakenly believe.

The Woman and the Dragon

Having described Christ’s opening of all seven seals, John next provides, in Revelation 12, an inset describing the conflict between the woman and the dragon.

John describes a vision of a woman clothed with the sun, the moon and 12 stars. This description hearkens back to Genesis 37:9, where in a dream Joseph had seen the family of Israel depicted by the sun, moon and stars. As we have seen earlier, the Bible uses a woman to symbolize a church. In a few brief verses, the entire history of the Church is traced from the time of the Congregation of Israel—the Church in the wilderness—to the end of the Great Tribulation. The woman is said to have brought forth the man child who was to rule all nations—a clear reference to Christ, who sprang out of Israel. The dragon, defined in verse 9 as Satan the devil, attempts to destroy Jesus Christ—who was taken back to heaven after His resurrection.

In verse 6, we read of the woman having to flee to the wilderness to be protected during a period of 1,260 prophetic “days”—1,260 literal years. Since this occurs after Christ’s ascension, it clearly refers to the New Testament Church. Indeed, in the early fourth century AD, after the Roman emperor Constantine allied with the bishop of Rome, the true Church had to flee to remote areas. Historically, a 1,260-year period can be traced from after the Council of Nicea in 325AD, down to about 1585, when the true Church began to emerge openly once again. You can read this entire remarkable story in our free booklet, God’s Church Through the Ages.

Also, it should be noted that Revelation 12 describes two different rebellions of Satan. Verse 4 reminds us of the archangel Lucifer’s original rebellion (cf. Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28), in which he drew one-third of the angels with him before Adam was created. He was cast to earth, and his name was changed from “light bearer” (the meaning of “Lucifer”) to “adversary” (the meaning of “Satan”). In context, verses 7–12—placed in the story flow after the time of the Church in the wilderness (historically the medieval period)—refer to a yet future attempt of Satan to seize power in heaven, just before the final Great Tribulation.

After this future and final casting down of Satan, God will take the “woman”—His true Church—into a special place in the wilderness, to be nourished and protected during this final three-and-a-half-year period. A remnant will be left behind, however, which the devil will go to attack. Scripture shows the Church at Philadelphia being kept from this hour of severe trial, but Christ will spew out the Church at Laodicea into the Great Tribulation, because of its unwillingness to repent of—or even recognize—its lukewarm complacency, materialism, self-righteousness and spiritual blindness and nakedness!

The Beast

Having been given an overview of the history of the true Church in Revelation 12, John was shown another vision in Revelation 13 that gave him an overview of the Beast system. The Beast is first referred to in Revelation 11:7, seeking to destroy the Two Witnesses. It is not further defined until we come to Revelation 13. In this chapter, John saw a vision that hearkened back to what Daniel recorded in Daniel 7.

Daniel had seen four creatures emerge one after another from the sea: a lion, a bear, a four-headed leopard and a terrible creature with iron teeth and ten horns. These are defined in Daniel 7:23 as four kingdoms. When the vision in Daniel 2 is compared to that in Daniel 7, it is evident that this progression of four world-ruling kingdoms started in Daniel’s day with Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire and continued down through the successive kingdoms of Persia, Greece and Rome. By the time of John’s vision in the book of Revelation, the empires of ancient Babylon, Persia and Greece had passed into history and the fourth kingdom—the Roman Empire—dominated the world scene.

In Revelation 13, John described the Roman Empire as having the characteristics of the earlier empires whose remnants it had absorbed. A detailed study of all the scriptures relating to this and the historical references that prove their fulfillment is given in our booklet, The Beast of Revelation. It will give you much detail that is beyond the scope of this present booklet.

John saw the Beast receive a deadly wound. Historically this was the fall of the Roman Empire in 476. Then John saw that the deadly wound was healed, as occurred with the Imperial Restoration by Justinian in 554. The Beast then continued for 1,260 prophetic “days,” the duration from Justinian until the fall of Napoleon in 1814. This was the period of the so-called Holy Roman Empire and its alliance with the Roman pontiff. John also saw a second beast, this one looking like a lamb but actually serving as the mouthpiece of Satan, the dragon (Revelation 13:11). Clearly this is symbolic of a religious system that claims to be Christian but actually proclaims the devil’s message rather than Christ’s gospel. This false religious system is pictured as constructing a model, or an image, based upon the institutions of the old Roman Empire. Ancient pagan Rome was the model upon which papal Rome and its political structure was built. There was an alliance of church and state that continued down through the medieval period. The church used the state to enforce conformity with religious edicts and in turn required its adherents to be loyal to the state.

The mark of the beast, a brand that advertises disobedience to the law of God, is something that goes back to antiquity. It has been insisted upon ever since this unholy alliance of church and state took place in the days of Emperor Constantine.

The number of the beast, 666, is derived from numeric values anciently assigned to letters of the alphabet, in lieu of separate numerals as we commonly use today. Hebrew, Greek and Latin all used such a system, so all names in those languages had a numerical value. See our booklet, The Beast of Revelation, for further information on the mark of the Beast, and the detailed proof that the Roman system is branded by the number 666—the number of a name.

It is also vitally important to realize that this medieval alliance of church and state is once again to rear its head. In the days soon ahead of us, the final appearance of the Beast system will emerge once more from out of the abyss. Will you give in to the pressures to fit in with this powerful system that will hold a brief sway over all the earth in the near future? You need to understand this subject for your own sake and for that of your family.

Triumph and Wrath

After these brief insets to bring the story of the persecuted and the persecutors from the time of antiquity down to the time when the seventh trumpet will blow, the story switches to focus on the aftermath of the final trumpet. It will be a time of wonderful triumph for the saints of God. Persecuted and derided down through the centuries, the saints of God are described in glory rejoicing before God the Father and Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the remainder of rebellious mankind is about to receive the undiluted wrath of God Almighty.

The 144,000 whom we had earlier seen sealed to protect them from the wrath of the Day of the Lord are now pictured in glory and are singing a new song as they stand before the throne of God praising Him for their redemption (Revelation 14:1–5). All the while this celebration is taking place, three angels go through the earth proclaiming God’s final message for mankind as He prepares to pour out His final wrath (vv. 6–11).

As the glorified saints rejoice and the three angels proclaim God’s final warning, preparation is made for rebellious mankind to be cast into the winepress of the wrath of God (v. 19).

Here we should note that Scripture identifies the true saints as those who actually obey God and keep His commandments. Revelation 14:12 emphasizes this point by describing the saints in comparison to those who will receive God’s punishment. Also, it should be noted that both the song of Moses and that of Christ (the Lamb) are sung before the throne (15:3). The messages of the Old and New Testaments are not contradictory or discordant; rather, they are in harmony, as shown by the singing of the glorified saints.

In Revelation 15, John records a vision of seven angels, with seven golden bowls that pour out seven final plagues, one after another. This pouring occurs rather quickly, as we see when we examine the nature of the plagues. If the second and third plagues, for instance, lasted more than a few days, all life would perish from the planet.

When the first bowl is poured out, a grievous sore comes upon those who had disregarded the third angel’s message and were still loyal to the Beast system. Then, when the second angel pours out his bowl, all the oceans become like “the blood of a dead man” (16:3). All sea life dies. With the pouring out of the third bowl, all the fresh water turns to blood, and sources of drinking water are destroyed. Then, the fourth angel pours his bowl, and scorching heat from the sun punishes rebellious mankind. Next, great darkness comes upon Europe (“the seat of the Beast”) and its people are in agonizing pain and heat, engulfed in total darkness and lacking usable water all at the same time. The darkness results from the bowl poured out by the fifth angel.

After this, John sees the sixth angel pour his bowl upon the Euphrates. Demon spirits go forth to bring all the armies together north of Jerusalem. The huge Asiatic army that had previously been massed on the east bank of the Euphrates pours into the land of Israel, and converges in the area of Armageddon (Hebrew for “mount of Megiddo”). Megiddo is a hill that stands overlooking the Valley of Jezreel, about 55 miles north of Jerusalem. When the final seventh bowl is poured out, there will be a tremendous earthquake so massive that the very topography of the earth itself will be altered (vv. 18–20). Very likely this earthquake is the same one that is described in Zechariah 14:4, when the feet of Jesus Christ finally stand once more upon the Mount of Olives, located just east of Jerusalem.

Babylon the Great Is Fallen

Following his vision of the seven last plagues being poured out, John is shown two more visions that represent an inset into the story flow of Revelation. These visions describe Babylon the Great and the final destruction that will come upon that terrible system. In Revelation 17 the focus is upon the religious and political alliance that once again—in the not-too-distant future of you who are reading this booklet—will come to dominate the world. The political system is described as ridden by a woman, but a woman very unlike the chaste virgin bride of Christ. This is a church that is described as a great whore, one that has entered into illicit liaisons with various national leaders. These unions have spawned what the Bible labels as harlot daughters. This whole religious system is defined as an outgrowth of the ancient pagan Babylonian mystery religion.

In Revelation 18, John was shown in vision the announcement of the fall and total destruction of modern Babylon. This chapter reveals that in addition to being a religious and political system, as is emphasized in Revelation 17, Babylon is also a commercial system that seeks to dominate the world economically. Many details of the prophecies recorded in these two chapters are covered in our free booklet, The Beast of Revelation.

It is important that we realize now, and in the crucial years ahead, that God’s victory is certain. This history has already been written in advance! Therefore, it is imperative that we come out of this world’s Babylonish system (18:4) and give our total and true allegiance to Jesus Christ and the message that He taught!

Beyond the Chaos

Much of Revelation describes the chaos that results from mankind following Satan and seeking to build its own civilization apart from Almighty God. But neither that chaos, nor God’s victory over Satan, is the climax of the book. Rather, Revelation ends with the living Christ showing John what would take place beyond the chaos.

After seeing, in vision, the cataclysmic destruction of Babylon the Great, John sees another vision of heaven, and of a celebration before the very throne of God. Babylon’s fall is noted in Revelation 19:2, and verse 6 depicts the rejoicing of those before God’s throne: “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”

John then learns that the time has finally arrived for the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Church, changed from flesh and blood to immortal spirit at the resurrection, is now ready to marry Christ. The bride—collectively the Church—is pictured as being arrayed in wedding garments of clean white linen, representing the righteousness of the saints.

Understanding ancient Jewish marriage customs may give us some insight into what is being described. The marriage ceremony had three major components, each taking place at a different time, as we know from secular history as well as Scripture. These three components share some of the symbolism of the three festival seasons that God gave to ancient Israel, by which he revealed His great plan of salvation (If you do not already have our free booklet on the Holy Days, then please request your free copy of The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan).

The first part of the wedding ceremony was the bride price, normally paid by the father of the bridegroom. We see this in Genesis 24, where Abraham offered gifts when arranging to seek a wife for his son Isaac. This parallels the Passover season. The bride price that God the Father offered was the life of His only begotten Son (John 3:16).

The second phase of the wedding ceremony was the espousal, or signing of the marriage covenant. Once this formal agreement was made, the couple was considered married, even before they had celebrated or consummated their marriage. Joseph and Mary were in this espousal stage when it was discovered that Mary had supernaturally conceived Jesus Christ. This second stage of the wedding ceremony parallels the second festival season: Pentecost, the time of the covenants (see Jeremiah 2:2, where the time of Israel in the wilderness was likened to the time of espousal).

The third phase of the wedding ceremony was the celebration of the marriage feast. Normally a week in duration (cf. Genesis 29:27), it was characterized by festivity and celebration (John 2:1–10). This phase usually began with a procession. The bridegroom would go to claim his bride, and the bridal party would go out to meet him (cf. Matthew 25:6). Usually the bride would proceed, together with the bridegroom, from her father’s house to the home that her husband had prepared. This was followed by seven days of feasting with friends and family. This final stage of the wedding ceremony parallels the Feast of Tabernacles—seven days of feasting that represent the millennial reign of the Messiah, when He will make a “feast of choice pieces” to the whole world (Isaiah 25:6).

The Kingdom Established

As Revelation 19 concludes, John sees heaven opened and the triumphant Jesus Christ returning to the earth in power and glory, astride a white horse, followed by the armies of heaven. Mankind’s armies, which had previously gathered at Armageddon, are destroyed on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The Beast and the False Prophet are taken and thrown into a fiery, molten lake where they are burned up. The blasphemous claims of divinity that they had made are thus shown to be empty and false.

When Christ’s feet stand once more on the very Mount of Olives from which He ascended into heaven about 2,000 years ago, the mount will split in two. At that point, a stream will break forth from beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It will flow eastward through the newly divided Mount of Olives, and westward into the Mediterranean Sea. Spreading quickly, this “living water” will supernaturally heal all of the dead waters that had become like blood a few days earlier (Revelation 16:3–4), when the second and third bowls of wrath were poured out. Abundant sea life will be restored (Ezekiel 47:1, 8–9).

The returning King of kings will immediately dispatch a mighty angel to seize Satan the devil and lock him away for a thousand years. This sets the stage for the reign of the Kingdom of God on earth. The symbolism of the Holy Days, which God gave to Israel, can help us understand the meaning of the sequence of events. Just as the Feast of Trumpets represents the time of God’s intervention and judgment, so the Day of Atonement—coming nine days later—pictures the time when Satan will be banished and made to bear his responsibility for sin. The fulfillment of what this day symbolized is described in Revelation 20:1–3. Most likely, the action that is described in the book of Revelation as occurring between the blowing of the seventh trumpet in Revelation 11:15 and the putting away of Satan in Revelation 20:2 will take place in a nine day span between Trumpets and Atonement. Satan being put away will represent the liberation of mankind. This is the fulfillment of the symbolism of the ancient year of Jubilee, when freedom was proclaimed (Leviticus 25:9–10). Note that the Jubilee began on the Day of Atonement, the day that symbolized Satan’s banishment. At this point, the remnants of all 12 tribes of Israel will begin to be regathered from their captivity to the land of Israel (Isaiah 27:1, 13).

In his vision of the future, John described the resurrected and glorified saints carrying out governmental responsibilities (Revelation 2:26–27; 5:10). They will reign on earth carrying out their functions as kings and priests under Jesus Christ. Other scriptures, such as Isaiah 2 and Isaiah 11, describe how God’s government will go forth from a rebuilt Jerusalem to encompass all nations. There will be a thousand years of healing and rebuilding, and all mankind will have the opportunity to learn God’s ways. It will be a time of abundance and prosperity, when “everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid” (Micah 4:4).

During the last generation living at the end of the Millennium, Satan will be released for a short time, and he will immediately go out to deceive the nations once more (Revelation 20:7–10). Why will God release him, knowing what he will do? God has always given mankind a choice, desiring us both to choose the right and to reject the wrong. Some, even after experiencing the benefits and blessings of God’s government, will allow themselves to fall under Satan’s sway. Satan will gather armies, from many nations around the earth, that bear the same rebellious attitude as Gog and Magog—two of the nations that fought against God in the beginning years of the Millennium (cf. Ezekiel 38). These armies will converge on Jerusalem, but will quickly be destroyed, and Satan will be put away forever.

New Heavens and a New Earth

At the close of this period of judgment, when every human being who has ever lived will have had a genuine opportunity to receive God’s salvation, there will be a time of reckoning for those who have rejected that free gift. As the earth and the very universe itself appear to dissolve in a fiery cosmic conflagration (cf. 2 Peter 3:10–13), all of the wicked will be burned up completely and for eternity. After the passing of this sin-tainted realm will come new heavens and a new earth.

That new earth will become the dwelling place for God the Father and the family that He has built. John saw the New Jerusalem, which had been under preparation in heaven, descend to the new earth. God the Father will dwell there, with His children, forever.

Near the end of the book of Revelation, John describes the glory of this great city with its 12 foundations and 12 gates. The streets are of gold and the gates are each made of a single pearl. There is brilliant color, and light pervading everywhere, because of the presence of the Father and Christ. Those who are part of Christ’s bride will actually dwell in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1–3), while those who came later—during the Millennium and Great White Throne Judgment—will inhabit the remainder of the new earth. The rest of God’s glorified family—”the nations of those who are saved”—will have unfettered access to the Father and Christ, as the gates of the city will remain open by day and there will be no night there (vv. 23–26). They will have complete access to the tree of life that grows in the city, and to the river of the water of life (22:1–2).

Death, pain and tears will finally be banished forever. The curse will be removed that came upon mankind, and even upon the earth itself, after the sins of Adam and Eve. Sin and its consequences will at last be totally gone. Whoever desires will be able to take of the water of life freely.

“And behold, I am coming quickly,” Jesus declared to John, “and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.… Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (vv. 12, 14).

The book of Revelation tells us of the end of history and the beginning of forever. It leaves us standing upon the very brink of eternity, with the assurance that Jesus Christ really will return soon. The promises that John was inspired to record are absolutely sure—and they apply to you and to your family! “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (1:3).

Booklet Category

Prophecy Fulfilled: God’s Hand in World Affairs

4uwzvo — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 21:00:39 +0000

Prophecy Fulfilled: God’s Hand in World Affairs 4uwzvo Mon, 02/28/2022 - 21:00

Prophecy Fulfilled: God’s Hand in World Affairs

Roderick C. Meredith (1930-2017)

Booklet Media

#Current Events

#Prophecy

Humanity today is facing staggering crises of war, disease, pollution, drought and famine. Where will it all lead? Bible prophecy reveals that God is working through current events to bring about a future time when the whole world will be at peace. If you understand what God is doing now, and what He has planned for His creation, you can have hope—even in times of trouble!

To the modern scientist or businessman, or even the theologian who does not take the Bible literally, the biggest stumbling block to understanding God’s prophecies is the failure to fully grasp the absolute reality of the true God—the Creator God revealed in the Holy Bible. Just how does God’s power work? How does God rearrange the destinies of nations? Can we see prophecy fulfilled in history—and even in world affairs today?

Most importantly, we need to remember that the God revealed in your Bible has the ability to exercise total power and total control of nations and individuals. “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the balance; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing…. It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless” (Isaiah 40:15, 22–23).

Do you believe that? Or was Isaiah making this up—perhaps taking literary liberties—in this perspective on divine power?

The fact of the matter is that from Genesis to Revelation, your Bible is filled with prophecies showing how God has intervened, is intervening and will continue to intervene in world affairs. Even Jesus’ own words are filled with prophetic significance, from the “Olivet Prophecy” of Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, to the vision of the future He gave the Apostle John in the book of Revelation.

How closely can God work to guide the leadership of a nation? The prophet Daniel described how Nebuchadnezzar, king of one of the most remarkable empires of antiquity, became insane and was driven out of office “in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:17). God determines who will govern in the various nations, placing in office, sometimes, the basest of men.

Can Americans take comfort in this scripture when thinking about recent leaders? Can the British look at the actions of their Prime Ministers and see God’s hand? Can unstable Italy, which has had more than 60 governments in the decades since World War II? Other European nations, too, are facing social and political turmoil. The French have seen the rise of ultra-right-wing politicians who would have been well at home in occupied Vichy France during World War II. Are these nations getting the types of leaders they deserve, rather than the decent and wise leaders that they so desperately need? And what about the role of the Roman Catholic pope in Europe? Pope Francis has continued to urge Europeans to rediscover their Catholic heritage as a more powerful unifying force than any local nationalism. Benedict XVI had so strongly advocated the importance of reestablishing Europe’s “Christian” roots that he alienated not only European Turks but even non-European Muslims around the globe.

Truly, the world’s present political stability is as solid as a will-o’-the-wisp.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses described how God orchestrated and guided the dispersion of nations and peoples in antiquity. “When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:8). Like a chess master, God moves kings, queens, bishops and pawns at will, according to His purpose. He guides various major nations to the area of the earth where He wants them and blesses or curses them in weather, war and prosperity according to how they yield to His will (cf. Leviticus 26).

WILL JESUS CHRIST RETURN TONIGHT?

Millions of Pentecostal and Evangelical believers expect that Jesus Christ may come at any time. They see world events shaping up according to Bible prophecy, and they want to be “ready.” “Jesus Christ may come back tonight,” bellows the iron-lunged evangelist in his big tent meeting. “You had better give your heart to the Lord now while He is calling you. You may never get another chance like this!” Most of us have heard such talk—either in person or on the radio or television.

Franklin Graham, son of noted preacher Billy Graham, was famously quoted as saying: “The churches believe that everything is coming to a head and that God is moving. Many people in the evangelical community believe that the return of Jesus Christ could be at any moment—and I’m one of those” (Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1995). And he was far from alone! For decades, forceful evangelicals have thundered in revival meetings: “Jesus Christ may come tonight. You need to be ready to meet your Maker now!”

Is it likely that the Jesus Christ of the Bible will return tonight? To most people living today, the prospect of God’s intervention does not seem very real. Even among “believers,” there is great disagreement as to when and how Christ will return—or if He will literally return at all.

Will God intervene suddenly and mysteriously—totally unexpectedly? Or has the Almighty revealed a specific chain of events that will inform and warn those who take the Bible seriously? Has God been intervening in world affairs?

What does the Bible really say? You need to know!

Before anything else, it is necessary to state that God is not capricious. The Creator of the universe does not make His plans for fanciful, impulsive or temperamental reasons. God the Father will send Jesus Christ back to this earth at a time when His Second Coming will make the difference between life and death for the human race. Preachers who foolishly proclaim “tonight is the night” are doing a grave disservice to their listeners. The return of Jesus Christ is deadly serious business. It may even be a question of your very survival!

The Holy Bible is the only true source of revealed knowledge about Jesus Christ’s return. Most of mankind’s ideas and speculation about His return are sheer nonsense, based on nothing but guesses and vanity! Is there a way to recognize the signs of His coming, and the end of the age? Can we truly see prophecy fulfilled in world affairs—and understand what this means for us and for our world?

END-TIME WORLD SUFFERING

The Bible reveals that man’s technological knowledge will be vastly increased just before Christ returns. It will also be a time of mass travel and large movements of immigrants: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4).

Despite this boom in technological ability, man’s know-how in spiritual matters is stagnating! Our ability to get along with each other has not improved over the last 4,000 years. Jesus said: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:37).

The Bible clearly reveals that Noah’s day was characterized by rampant sin and violence: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.… And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth'” (Genesis 6:5, 13).

The Apostle Paul was also inspired by God to look into the future to describe the last days as “perilous times”—times of crass materialism, moral degradation and a false spirituality that denies the power of the true God of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:1–5). Does this description fit our present Western civilization?

The time leading up to Jesus’ return will also experience an abundance of horrifying wars and destruction (Matthew 24:3–20). Jesus warned that there would be a real threat of human extinction—if He did not intervene to save man from his deadly ways: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (vv. 21–22).

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Consider this vision of the future: An alarming variety of crises face a bewildered humanity. The world’s supply of good food and clean water dwindles, because of pollution that degrades the environment and global warming that alters weather patterns. Millions face hunger and, eventually, starvation. Some areas struggle with horrendous winter storms and massive flooding while other areas wither in drought under a blazing sun! These weather upsets exact staggering financial tolls, bankrupting many insurance companies.

Massive earthquakes, occasional volcanoes and insect plagues further drain international and local disaster relief resources. Ethnic tensions, unemployment and pervasive urban crime cast a pall of insecurity over once-peaceful communities. Life becomes increasingly cheap. After all, what is the cost of a few bullets or a knife?

Meanwhile, the horrors of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, and the July 7, 2005 bombings in Great Britain, continue to remind us that increasing terrorism will greatly exacerbate all of the above problems!

Devastating disease epidemics will afflict tens of millions! As the climate warms, exotic diseases once confined to Third World tropical countries move north with certain species of disease-carrying mosquitoes and other insects. Drug-resistant infectious bacterial strains breed rapidly in hospitals, wiping out the effectiveness of antibiotics and other “miracle” drugs. Bioengineering—providing humans with transplant organs from baboons, pigs and other animals—facilitates the dangerous mutation of deadly bacteria and viruses. These consequently leap the previous barrier between animal and human susceptibility to one another’s diseases. The young, the elderly and the destitute die in staggering numbers. Mass burials of the dead become commonplace.

“Nonsense,” you say? “It will never happen where I live,” you argue. “Unwarranted gloom and doom,” you assert. “Besides, my government and modern technology will save me from such problems,” you hope.

Oh, really? Will your armies, police, social security and health care systems indefinitely insulate you from such looming foreign and domestic terrors? What do you really expect?

Many Western governments are saddled with swiftly rising public debts that have grown to truly gargantuan proportions! Painful budget cuts are the fodder of many nations’ political debate. In many Third World countries, the priority is to spend money these days on guns—not health care or pensions.

If you are an American, a Canadian, a Briton, an Australian or a resident of one of the comfortably wealthy Western powers, take note. Fiscal irresponsibility on a national scale presages a clear decline in future prestige and power. If your country has to cut back because of falling income, how will you individually be affected? Is it really all “blue sky” up ahead? Or are there storm clouds on the horizon?

A SOMBER PORTRAIT

Consider: “The worldwide recession has forced countries around the world to curb public spending—or risk defaulting on their debt. The United Kingdom is the latest to tighten its belt. The National Health Service (NHS)—the centralized public agency that runs Britain’s government healthcare system—is being forced to shave $31 billion from its budget by 2015. These cuts are leading to a precipitous drop in the quality of care patients receive. The NHS has been living well beyond its means for quite awhile. And now brutal government-enforced cost controls are exacting a heavy human toll” (Forbes.com. “The Ugly Realities Of Socialized Medicine Are Not Going Away,” Sally Pipes, December 19, 2011).

Such declines in public health care systems are taking place all around the world. In many places, cuts in health care for the poor, the young and the aged have already been a fact of life for years, but are now being seen on a more drastic scale, even in the United States:

“A battle has broken out between California counties and Governor Jerry Brown, who is proposing to take an estimated $2.5 billion over the next three years from local health and prevention programs.

These funds, which have flowed from the state to counties since 1991, support community clinics in Los Angeles and other cities that serve poor people who don’t have insurance. They help pay for public health programs, like one in Alameda County that provides preventive services to children with asthma, reducing hospitalizations” (Forbes.com.“California Health Care Cuts Will Cripple Prevention, Leave Poor Out In Cold, Counties Say,” Rob Waters, June 7, 2013).

And consider this startling prognosis on the effects of budget cuts on our ability to fight current and future outbreaks:

“In December, Congress approved $5.4 billion in emergency funding to fight the outbreak in West Africa, with a portion of that money dedicated to preparing U.S. hospitals for domestic Ebola cases. The funding was most of what President Barack Obama had requested.

But experts say readiness efforts have been stymied by years of reduced funding. Local health departments cut about 4,400 positions in 2013, according to an April report from the National Association of County & City Health Officials. Since 2008, more than 48,000 jobs in local health departments have been eliminated through layoffs and attrition.

The cuts have left state and local health departments stretched thin to provide services such as vaccinations and HIV/AIDS education, and have limited their ability to recruit personnel who can help detect and identify disease threats. “What happens is one program has to borrow money from another program,” said Chris Aldridge, senior director for infectious disease prevention and control at NACCHO” (ModernHealthCare.com. “U.S. Still Unprepared for Epidemics,” Steven Johnson, January 10, 2015).

As disease and declines in health care support spread, and long-cherished societal norms break down, many turn to despair, and even to suicide. In the last decade, 300,000 Americans have taken their own lives—as many as were killed in combat in World War II. “America is in the throes of a largely unrecognized suicide epidemic, as suicide has become the eighth leading cause of death in the United States today, and the third leading cause among adolescents. All Americans recognize that our country is rife with violent crime, but few know that 50 percent more Americans kill themselves than are murdered” (San Diego Union-Tribune, January 11, 2002).

More young people survive suicide attempts than actually die. A nationwide survey of youth in grades 9–12 in public and private schools in the United States (U.S.) found that 16 percent of students reported seriously considering suicide, 13 percent reported creating a plan, and 8 percent reporting trying to take their own life in the 12 months preceding the survey. Each year, approximately 157,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 24 receive medical care for self-inflicted injuries at Emergency Departments across the U.S.” (“Youth Suicide,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control, September 2014).

The problem of suicide is worldwide. The World Health Organization reported in calendar year 2015 that almost a million people each year kill themselves, and that suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29 year-olds globally. (World Health Organization. “First WHO report on suicide prevention,” September 4, 2014). In 2014, the CDC released a report showing that the rate for all of the top ten leading causes of death in the U.S. EXCEPT suicide dropped from 2011 to 2012, whereas suicide rates rose to 12.6 cases per 100,000 Americans (AFSP.org, “Suicide Prevention Investment Needed to Reverse Trend of Increasing Suicide,” October 10, 2014).

Our jails, too, are filled with evidence that American society is not what it should be. “Recently, the United States achieved the dubious honor of boasting the largest prison and jail population on Earth. It reached this zenith by surpassing cash-strapped Russia—long its only rival as a mass imprisonment society—after Russia released thousands of inmates to save money,” noted Sasha Abramsky, author of Hard Time Blues. “Approximately 2 million Americans are now serving either prison or jail time.… Per hundred thousand residents, the United States has an incarceration rate over five times that of England, six times that of Canada, and seven times that of Germany.”

In 2011, according to a U.S. Department of Justice BSJ report, nearly 7 million people in the U.S. were on probation, in jail, in prison or on parole—accounting for 2.8 percent of the U.S. population or one of every 35 adults. What does that say about the stability of a society and the contentment of its people?

MELTING AT THE POLES

Even a seemingly small matter such as rising temperatures can herald grave crisis. For as long as records have been kept, there has been a thick Arctic pack of “perennial ice”—present year-round and unaffected by the Arctic summer. That ice cover had formed a barrier between the northern European coast and the North Pole. In 2006, however, scientists discovered that a section of the ice pack larger than the British Isles had melted away, leaving a sea route by which ships could soon navigate from northern Europe to the North Pole. “If this anomaly continues,” said Mark Drinkwater of the European Space Agency, whose cameras recorded the melting, “the Northeast Passage, or ‘Northern Sea Route’ between Europe and Asia will be open over longer intervals of time, and it is conceivable we might see attempts at sailing around the world directly across the summer Arctic Ocean” (Agence France Press, September 20, 2006).

Since then, as recently as August 2013, Spiegel reported:

“The ice cap off Siberia now almost completely disappears in the summer months. Although there are still isolated floes, the Arctic Ocean is navigable. Coastal ice vanished for the first time in the summer of 2005, and it has been disappearing every summer since 2007. There was never as little Arctic ice as in mid-September 2012, and the ice has never melted as quickly as it did in the first half of July 2013, with an area twice the size of Bavaria disappearing every day” (“Northeast Passage: Russia Moves to Boost Arctic Shipping,” August 22, 2013).

Climate changes have even affected the vast expanse of Antarctica’s giant ice shelves. One shelf that scientists estimate had existed for at least 12,000 years collapsed in 2002, prompted by one of the warmest summers on record there. “It’s a profound event,” said geologist Christina Hulbe. “This ice shelf has endured many climate oscillations over many thousands of years. Now it’s gone.” The collapsed area, 650 feet thick, had a surface area of 1,250 square miles—about the size of Rhode Island. “Scientists said there has also been a 50-year warming trend in the peninsula, which is considered a sensitive, early indicator of global climate change” (San Diego Union-Tribune, March 20, 2002). Another shelf, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, has been on the verge of collapse in 2014; some scientists say its collapse has already begun.

As temperatures rise around the world, drought will bring more severe trials to mankind. Scientists now estimate that by 2050, “the number of people living in river basins under severe water stress is projected to reach 3.9 billion by 2050, totalling over 40 percent of the world’s population… In water stressed basins, small changes in water regimes (droughts) can have major consequences… groundwater depletion, which more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, may become the greatest threat to agriculture and urban water supplies in several regions in the coming decades” (Global Water Forum, “Water Outlook to 2050: The OECD Calls for Early and Strategic Action,” May 21, 2012). At present, water shortages affect about 700 million people in 43 countries, and by 2030, almost half the world’s population, with 75-250 million people Sub-Saharan Africa alone, will suffer from “high water stress” according to the UN in 2015.

All over the world, major aquifers are being destroyed at an alarming rate, and in major regions, including the Near and Middle East and parts of Asia, conflicts over water are becoming increasingly troubling: “The US security establishment is already warning of potential conflicts—including terror attacks—over water. In a 2012 report, the US director of national intelligence warned that overuse of water—as in India and other countries—was a source of conflict that could potentially compromise US national security” (The Guardian, “Global Water Shortages Pose Threat of Terror and War,” February 8, 2014).

“Water could become the new oil as a source of conflict,” said Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, chairman of the Forum. One poignant statement was made at the March 2006 meeting of the World Water Forum in Mexico City: “Millions have lived without love. No one has lived without water” (Synthesis Report, World Water Forum 2006, p. 65).

Notice: “Despite innovations that have lowered costs of water treatment, more than a billion people still lack safe drinking water.… Rural, agricultural areas are threatened the most… a combination of global warming, wasteful practices and pollution means that major rivers that traditionally have been relied on by millions of people are now running dry for part of the year. The Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Indus and the Ganges in south Asia don’t always reach the sea during the dry season, leaving farmers struggling.… There’s not enough water available to produce enough food” (Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2001).

STARVATION AND POLLUTION

Millions may starve as a result. “Forty of the world’s poorest countries are likely to see major losses in their ability to produce food—declines of up to 25 percent… with 450 million malnourished people” (Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2001).

How do people cope? Reporter Craig Timberg described the tragic choices facing hungry refugees in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region: “More and more often, women in Darfur face the starkest of choices: Risk being raped by leaving the [refugee] camps in search of firewood and grass, or starve. If they invite their brothers or husbands along to protect them, the [militia] will still rape the women, they say, and kill the men. ‘It is better for me to be raped than for my brother to be killed,’ said Eisa, soft-spoken and round-faced, with hair braided into tight rows beneath her head scarf. She has two children, ages 2 and 5” (Washington Post, September 17, 2006).

Remember, too, that the U.S. is not immune from the threat of starvation! “Drought has engulfed nearly a third of the United States, threatening to confront some places this summer with what experts say could be their worst water shortages in years. ‘This is a sleeping giant,’ said climatologist Mark Svoboda, at the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb. ‘The impact is still to come.'”

In Spring 2002, New York City’s reservoirs sunk to 48 percent of capacity, and many other communities throughout the U.S. experienced shortages and mandatory water rationing that summer. More recently, California has experienced severe drought, with reservoirs ranging from 54 percent to as little as 7 percent of capacity in Spring 2015.

And the water we do have may be poisonous. “Three decades after the Clean Water Act, a growing number of environmental scientists believe that traditional concerns about water contaminants might not go far enough. They see a potential threat emerging from the ubiquitous use and presence of chemicals associated with medicine and ordinary life. These compounds, from antibiotics to caffeine, are washing into the environment and water supply—with consequences unknown” (San Diego Union-Tribune, March 20, 2002).

But some effects are known. In England, for example, sharply lower human sperm counts have been linked to contaminants in the Thames River. In Germany, where sewage runoff can amount to at least half the water in many smaller rivers, researchers have detected noticeable quantities of anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, and other types of drugs in the water supply. Researchers in Kansas have found traces of nonylphenol in their water; this common ingredient in soap has been linked to cancer, infertility and physical deformities.

Modern agriculture itself is changing the nature of our water supply—for the worse. “Agriculture is the single biggest threat to water quality in the nation today,” said Charles Fox, who served as associate administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration. One factor is a phenomenon called “hypoxia,” which causes tainted water to become so salty—and devoid of usable oxygen for plants and wildlife—that it is damaging the ecology of many areas. “Since 1960 farmers in the region have tripled the volume of nitrogen and other chemicals they apply to their fields. Although soil conservation has improved dramatically during that period, thousands of tons of chemical nutrients still run off those fields into tributaries of the Mississippi and ultimately into the Gulf of Mexico. There, every summer, the nitrogen does its work again—triggering unnatural algae blooms that decay, sink to the bottom and consume the oxygen needed to sustain coastal life” (Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 17, 2006).

Sometimes the problem is as simple as mankind’s careless disposal of what it has used. A 2014 UN report stated that “In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial waste is dumped untreated into waters where they pollute the usable water supply” and that every day, 2 million tons of human waste are disposed of in rivers and other water sources (UNWater.org, “Statistics”).

With clean, fresh water becoming scarcer and more precious, how long will it be before wars break out over water? As an editorial in the Midland Reporter-Telegramobserved, “The fact remains that the world is on the lip of the cup as far as fresh water sources are concerned.” (September 26, 2006).

THE SCOURGE OF AIDS

AIDS—Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome—may no longer command the headlines it did in years past, but it has not gone away. According to one United Nations report, an estimated 33 million people around the globe were living with the HIV virus as of 2012. In that year alone, an estimated 2.2 million became newly infected with HIV, and an estimated 2 million lost their lives to AIDS (“Global Report: UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, 2013”).

In Sub-Saharan Africa, somewhere between 23.5 and 26.1 million adults and children live with HIV, and this region comprises about 71 percent of all people in the world living with the disease—with much higher rates in the female and young children’s populations (AIDS.gov, “The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” November 2014).

In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control noted the sad milestone, “Twenty-five Years of HIV/AIDS.” The CDC reported that more than a million people in the U.S. were living with the HIV virus, with 40,000 of those newly infected in 2006. Of these, male homosexuals accounted for 45 percent of the new infections. Women account for about 25 percent of new AIDS infections in the U.S., and AIDS is currently the leading cause of death for black women between ages 25 and 34 (June 2, 2006). In 2011, the CDC still reported that “1,201,100 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection” and that “the pace of new infections continues at far too high a level—particularly among certain groups” (“HIV in the United States: at a Glance,” November 2014). In addition, “Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly young black/African American MSM, are most seriously affected by HIV” (ibid.).

AIDS continues to have a devastating effect on the American economy. Researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation have calculated that AIDS cost the U.S. economy approximately $29.7 billion in 2014 alone in direct and indirect costs, and that in 2015 the government budget called for more than 30 billion (“U.S. Federal Funding for HIV/AIDS: The President’s FY 2015 Budget Request.” KFF.org, June 25, 2014).

AIDS, of course, is by no means just—or even primarily—an American or African problem. Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and central Asia have the fastest-rising rates of HIV infection in the world, with the number of HIV-positive people in these areas growing more than 50 percent from 2001 to 2011, according to UNAIDS (“Eastern Europe’s growing HIV epidemic under scrutiny,” December 5, 2012). The highest rate of infection there was found in the Ukraine, where 38 out of every 100,00 at least 70 percent of new cases in 2011 were found (AVERT.org.“European HIV & AIDS Statistics, 2014”).

In total, between 1981 and 2015, estimates indicate that as many as 42 million people around the world have died of AIDS—including 650,000 in the U.S.—and another 35 million or so are living with the dread disease.

THE BIBLE PLAINLY PROPHESIED THESE TRENDS!

Jesus Christ prophesied that just before His return there would be “famines”—lack of food—and “pestilences”—disease epidemics. Presently we are seeing just the beginning of these curses, which will increase until they have a massive effect on our entire way of life! Christ directly prophesied that our time would be like Noah’s (Matthew 24:37–39). Noah’s day was characterized by “wickedness” and was filled with “violence” (Genesis 6:5, 13).

Has the problem of crime been solved in the U.S.? No, it has not! With a prison population of roughly 2.2 million, the United States leads the world in incarcerations. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2013 alone, the U.S. saw a rate of violent crime of about 23.2 victimizations per 1,000 people. Around the country, constant reports about the rise of drug related, violent crime and an overburdened justice system contribute to people feeling less safe; more than 68 percent of Americans surveyed by Gallup in 2011 felt that crime in America was worsening, despite reports of “declining” crime rates (“Most Americans Believe Crime in U.S. is Worsening,” October 31, 2011).

At the same time, to the disgust of many in conservative, traditional communities in other parts of the world, Hollywood and its imitators grow fantastically wealthy by merchandising moral degeneration through violent, sex-filled videos and CDs. Such a corrupt influence is increasingly seen as a social evil that ought to be kept out—yet the youth and, increasingly, the adults of the Western world eagerly embrace it! The Guttmacher Institute reported in 2014 that 16 percent of teens had engaged in sexual intercourse by age 15, compared with 33, 48 and 61 percent for 16, 17 and 18 year olds, respectively (“American Teens’ Sexual and Reproductive Health,” May 2014). Not long ago, researchers in Washington, DC designed a program to prevent early sexual activity. They designed it with seventh-graders in mind, but after a pilot study they decided to target fifth-graders instead—because too many seventh-graders were already having sex!

Yet all of these problems are just the beginning of the story. The world continues to face nuclear proliferation on a truly massive scale. While you might rejoice at the breakup of the Soviet Union, the immense amount of weaponry that nation possessed—including nuclear weapons—is now in danger of being sold to the highest bidder!

MUSLIM EXTREMISTS PREPARING FOR WAR!

Militant Islam is galvanizing hundreds of millions of people in opposition against the Western democracies, even as the U.S. military finds itself pushed to its limits in the “war against terrorism.” We need to understand that it is the ultimate goal of radical Muslim leaders to “conquer” the world in the sense that all human beings either become Muslims, totally submit to Muslim domination or ultimately be wiped out!

Note what historian Bernard Lewis—a Princeton University professor world-renowned as one of the top experts on Islam—tells us about the growing Muslim threat. In his powerful book titled The Crisis of Islam, Lewis describes how “a significant number of Muslims—notably but not exclusively those whom we call fundamentalists—are hostile and dangerous, not because we need an enemy but because they do.” He explains: “In recent years, there have been some changes of perception and, consequently, of tactics among Muslims. Some of them still see the West in general, and its present leader the United States in particular, as the ancient and irreconcilable enemy of Islam, the one serious obstacle to the restoration of God’s faith and law at home and their ultimate universal triumph. For these there is no way but war to the death, in fulfillment of what they see as the commandments of their faith” (p. 28).

Lewis continues: “For most of the fourteen centuries of recorded Muslim history, jihad was most commonly interpreted to mean armed struggle for the defense or advancement of Muslim power. In Muslim tradition, the world is divided into two houses: the House of Islam (Dar al-Islam), in which Muslim governments rule and Muslim law prevails, and the House of War (Dar al-Harb), the rest of the world, still inhabited and, more important, ruled by infidels. The presumption is that the duty of jihad will continue, interrupted only by truces, until all the world either adopts the Muslim faith or submits to Muslim rule” (ibid., p. 31).

Although the U.S. is working hard to impose a kind of “democracy” in Iraq, Lewis and most credible scholars acknowledge that Islam lacks the political and social traditions that would allow democracy to flourish. Many religious Muslims see the very practice of democracy as an act of turning against God. So they are often violently opposed to it, and will fight to the death to stop the continuing practice of any sort of genuine democracy, though they may use “democracy”—the act of voting—for a short time if it helps them overthrow the current regime and set up in its place an Islamic republic which then becomes a totally undemocratic and dictatorial regime!

Lewis comments on this problem, common to many Muslim nations: “Similar problems arise in Egypt, in Pakistan, and in some other Muslim countries where it seems likely that a genuinely free and fair election would result in an Islamist victory. In this, the democrats are of course at a disadvantage. Their ideology requires them, even when in power, to give freedom and rights to the Islamist opposition. The Islamists, when in power, are under no such obligation. On the contrary, their principles require them to suppress what they see as impious and subversive activities. For Islamists, democracy, expressing the will of the people, is the road to power, but it is a one-way road, on which there is no return, no rejection of the sovereignty of God, as exercised through His chosen representatives [the Islamist religious leaders]” (ibid., p. 111).

The Bible prophesies that a coming “king of the South” will push against a resurgent European empire, provoking world-shaking end-time events. If you wish to understand these prophecies, please write for a free copy of our information-packed booklet, The Middle East in Prophecy. Then you will see how militant Islam is setting the stage for the dramatic fulfillment of Bible prophecy. You can then begin to understand how increasing tens of millions of Muslims are being won over by the growing power of militant Islam! Then you will begin to understand even more how to “watch and pray”—which Jesus told us to do! Years ago, an article in the Washington Post gave insight into the then-current situation in the Middle East:

“The goal of reuniting Muslims under a single flag stands at the heart of the radical Islamic ideology Bush has warned of repeatedly in recent major speeches on terrorism. In language evoking the Cold War, Bush has cast the conflict in Iraq as the pivotal battleground in a larger contest between advocates of freedom and those who seek to establish ‘a totalitarian Islamic empire reaching from Spain to Indonesia.’

The enthusiasm of the extremists for that vision is not disputed. However unlikely its realization, the ambition may help explain terrorist acts that often appear beyond understanding. When Osama bin Laden called the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ‘a very small thing compared to this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years,’ the reference was to the aftermath of World War I, when the last caliphate was suspended as European powers divided up the Middle East. Al Qaeda named its Internet newscast, which debuted in September, ‘The Voice of the Caliphate.’

Yet the caliphate is also esteemed by many ordinary Muslims. For most, its revival is not an urgent concern. Public opinion polls show immediate issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and discrimination rank as more pressing. But Muslims regard themselves as members of the umma, or community of believers, that forms the heart of Islam. And as earthly head of that community, the caliph is cherished both as memory and ideal, interviews indicate.

That reservoir of respect represents a risk for the Bush administration as it addresses an issue closely watched by a global Islamic population estimated at 1.2 billion. Already, many surveys show that since the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Muslims almost universally have seen the war against terrorism as a war on Islam.

‘Why do you keep invading Muslim countries?’ asked Kerem Acar, a tailor in central Istanbul. ‘I won’t live to see it, and my children won’t, but one day maybe my children’s children will see someone declare himself the caliph, like the pope, and have an impact'” (January 14, 2006).

And these frustrations and ambitions are bearing fruit! As recently as 2014, following the unprecedented rise of the brutal Islamic militant organization now known as the “Islamic State” or ISIS, this “regime” has been clear about its goals:

“Restoring the caliphate, and with it a measure of the glory that attended Islam’s golden age, has been the stated goal of Sunni Muslim activists for decades, from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hizb ut-Tahrir to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda. But al-Baghdadi’s group is the first to assert it. “The time has come for those generations that were drowning in oceans of disgrace, being nursed on the milk of humiliation, and being ruled by the vilest of all people, after their long slumber in the darkness of neglect — the time has come for them to rise,” said the statement” (TIME, “ISIS Militants Declare Islamist ‘Caliphate,'” June 29, 2014).

Indeed, a coming “Mahdi” whose arrival Muslims are expecting—in Bible prophecy known as the “King of the South” (Daniel 11:40–45)—will soon arise and have a dramatic impact on world events. This powerful Muslim religious leader will unite many of the more than one billion Muslims. He will pose a genuine threat to the coming European Empire, which will have to crush that threat in order to continue exploiting Middle Eastern oil to further its military ambitions.

Truly, we need to recognize soberly that the world is, indeed, at war. Unwittingly, perhaps, America’s political and economic leaders have caused Muslims to perceive that the U.S. is “attacking” the entire “Islamic nation”—as they sometimes describe themselves—consisting of more than 1.2 billion human beings!

Little-noticed, amid the military escalation, is that the U.S. has abandoned its decades-old “two front” strategy, in which the nation kept itself prepared to fight, for example, a war in the Mediterranean at the same time as another war in the Pacific. This strategic change may portend grave danger in the not-too-distant future, as the U.S. acquires more enemies.

And do not forget that it is a resurgent Europe—not a weakening America—that will be at the forefront of the fight against expansionist Islam. Unified since January 2002 by a common currency—the euro—the nations of Europe are increasingly eager to intervene globally where they believe the U.S. is failing, whether in the “war on terrorism” or in the Middle East.

When all these trends are combined, they describe a vision for the future that sounds very scary! What is going on? To those who have studied, traveled widely and who understand the complexity of these issues, it is evident that we live in “perilous times.” World events are shaping up as described in Bible prophecy! Change is in the wind, but perhaps not in the way many have thought.

AND THEY WERE SCATTERED!

God does not need to watch the Weather Channel. He decides whether tomorrow will have clear skies or not. Jesus Christ said God “sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Occasionally, God withholds rain, or sends too much, to teach people lessons!

In his epistle, James describes how the prophet Elijah “prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:17–18).

So God has power to water a land or to dry it up. The same applies to the wind, cold, hurricanes and clouds. He uses this power on occasion to intervene in human affairs: “As when You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind” (Psalm 48:7).

Several of the major turning points of history for the English-speaking peoples were determined by God’s intervention in the weather during battle. These successful interventions made possible the religious freedom, prosperity and power the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic powers of the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom continue to enjoy.

In 1586–87, Catholic domination of the English throne was made impossible by the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. The following year, Spain’s King Philip II unleashed his “invincible” 124-ship Armada against England in an effort to reassert Catholic control. Though the English naval forces tenaciously fought, eventually they exhausted their gunpowder! At that critical point, an unprecedented gale-force wind arose and drove many of the heavily armed, lumbering Spanish galleons to their doom. The weather-beaten ships that limped home to Spain were so damaged that many could never again be used.

Queen Elizabeth, commemorating the Spanish defeat, issued a silver medal, bearing the inscription: “God blew and they were scattered.” Sheknew who took charge of those winds at that critical hour in the history of her people!

A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE

In 1940, Hitler’s forces had swiftly invaded France and the lowlands. They had cut off 330,000 crack British troops, forcing them to retreat with their backs to the English Channel at the port of Dunkirk. If the British lost this army, they could hardly have hoped to beat back the Nazi hordes set on conquering them. Word went out all over Britain: “Winnie [Churchill] needs boats.”

Though the English Channel is normally rough and treacherous, hundreds of ships, yachts and small boats—anything that would move while staying afloat—were sent to rescue at least a remnant of the army. But the situation seemed grim. Then, surprisingly, bad weather on the continent grounded most of the German air force. But, instead of being rough and choppy as usual—dangerous for small craft—the channel became almost as calm as a bathtub! Men and women who had lived all their lives on its shore had never seen it so tranquil. Winnie’s motley armada of naval flotsam and jetsam rescued nearly one-third of a million British troops—the backbone of their entire army! Hitler was dumbfounded. The Nazi generals bitterly grumbled under their breath for having lost an easy kill. The British were profoundly thankful and called it “the miracle of the calm seas.”

I have spent four years of my adult life in Britain, and talked to several older men who were personally familiar with the Dunkirk rescue operation. They all got a certain glint or tear in their eyes when they talked about it. They all remembered the outpouring of gratitude to God by the British people after this event. Sunday, June 9, 1940, was appointed as a Day of National Thanksgiving for God’s deliverance at Dunkirk, and many English vicars will tell you that their churches were packed on that day and have never been as full since.

The day before, June 8, London’s Daily Telegraph ran an article about what it called “the miraculous deliverance” at Dunkirk. A British officer who had himself been rescued from Dunkirk said: “One thing can be certain about tomorrow’s Thanksgiving in our churches. From none will the thanks ascend with greater sincerity or deeper fervor than from the officers and men who have seen the Hand of God, powerful to save, delivering them from the hands of a mighty foe, who humanly speaking, had them utterly at his mercy.”

Yes, God controls the destinies of nations—and individuals—even by turning the weather to His purposes. For more on this amazing sign of God’s intervention to bring about His prophetic ends, please request your free copy of our powerful booklet, Who Controls the Weather?

HITLER’S DEVIL

To enact His will among men, God uses His secret, invisible agents—righteous angels (and at times even fallen angels)—to influence, to deliver or to destroy.

The Bible reveals a fascinating insight into the working of the spirit world in 1 Kings 22. The inspired writer details an account of a conference before the Lord. It seems that God had already decided to take out one of the most wicked kings in the history of Israel, King Ahab. The question was how to do it. God settled on the plan to prod Ahab to personally go to an upcoming battle with the Syrians at Ramoth-gilead. But God needed someone to stir Ahab up to go fight. In this case, an evil spirit spoke up and volunteered to do the job: “The Lord said to him [the evil spirit], ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his [Ahab’s] prophets'” (v. 22).

On the day of the battle, God already knew that the Syrian army was stronger and would indeed defeat the Israelites. Ahab, though he had disguised his rank to avoid being a target, was slain during the course of the battle when a “lucky” arrow pierced the joints of his armor (vv. 34–37). This was because God had determined that this evil king should neither stay behind out of danger, nor escape alive from the battle, but should perish right along with many of his defeated troops.

When Adolph Hitler rose to power, a noted German Lutheran minister, Martin Niemoller, perceptively stated: “Verily a time of sifting has come upon us. God is giving Satan a free hand, so that He may shake us up and so that it may be seen what manner of men we are.”

Evidently, God did specifically allow demons to possess or strongly influence the Nazi dictator. British author George Bruce wrote: “Can the mystery of the evil of Nazism be explained? Was there a Satanic nucleus at the heart of it? One interpretation of its nature that should be mentioned is the link between Nazism and the alleged attachment to black magic and occultism of Hitler and his inner circle, including Goering, Himmler, Goebbels, Ley and, in the early days, Dietrich Eckart and professor Karl Haushofer.

“Hitler, according to what may seem to many people a far-fetched belief, was the medium through whom contact was made with supernatural powers of evil. Hermann Rauschning, who observed Hitler with a cold and analytical eye, declares that he was a medium, ‘possessed by forces outside himself—almost demoniacal forces.’ Rudolf Olden, political editor of the newspaper Berliner Tageblatt in the days of Nazism’s rise to power, remarked how the overwhelming, almost superhuman Niagara of words that poured forth during Hitler’s speeches sometimes reached a climax during which he literally ‘spoke in tongues’ and seemed possessed. André François-Poncet, French Ambassador to Berlin, also referred to this apparent demoniacal possession” (The Nazis, Hamlyn, p. 154).

After citing a number of other observers who felt Hitler had dark spiritual help, George Bruce speculated: “And does not this theory of Hitler being dominated by evil supernatural forces throw light for the first time on the reason for Auschwitz, Treblinka, the deaths of six million Jews, the plan to murder 33 million of the Slav population of Russia, the readiness to sacrifice three or four million of Germany’s young manhood in war and, finally, the long-term aim, reported by Fabian von Schlabrendorff, for the total and permanent destruction of Christianitythroughout the world?” (ibid., p. 156).

Hitler’s Europe was a mild precursor of what God’s inspired Word prophesies concerning the future revival of a satanically influenced “Babylonian-Roman system”: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!” (Revelation 18:2).

It is a sobering thought to consider that some of the most important players on the world scene who are shaping our destinies cannot be seen. They are angels or demons! We need to be much more aware of the very real spirit world around us, and we must make absolutely certain that we are guided by the Spirit of God!

HOW DOES GOD KNOW IN ADVANCE WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

How does God know what will take place in the future? How can He prophesy about some event hundreds or even thousands of years in advance? From the beginning, God has been an acute and perceptive observer of human behavior. He really knows what we are like (Jeremiah 17:4–10). God fully understands how humans tend to degenerate, to compromise and to forsake the right way.

Right after God gave Moses the details of His law for ancient Israel, He told him: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'” (Deuteronomy 31:16–17).

Since God has such a profound knowledge and insight about us, He can authoritatively predict what the basic conditions of peoples and nations will be in the future. Then, by skillfully manipulating the determinants of national power such as the weather, human leadership and other circumstances, God can fulfill specificprophecies that are sometimes astonishing in their minute detail.

An example of this divine intervention is the remarkable story of Cyrus the Great, king of the Persian Empire. Incredibly, God inspired the prophet Isaiah to describe Cyrus by name and by deed almost two centuries before Cyrus was born!

Around 740–720bc, Isaiah wrote under divine inspiration: “Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, “you shall be built,” and to the temple, “your foundation shall be laid.”‘ Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut” (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1).

Today, many scholars say that these scriptures in the book of Isaiah must have been written contemporaneously with the events they describe. They deny that Isaiah wrote a prophecy 200 years in advance of its fulfillment. On what basis do they deny this? They do not have facts to prove their point—only a lack of faith that God is the Almighty who truly intervenes in human affairs!

Look at what historians know about the events that took place around 539bc when Cyrus conquered Babylon, an “impregnable” city-fortress renowned throughout the earth for its power. Unable to surmount the massive fortified walls around Babylon, which had repelled so many other invaders, Cyrus’ men diverted the Euphrates River, which normally flowed under the heavy city water gates as it passed through the city. By lowering the river level and by having a spy unlock the inner gates along the river, Cyrus’ army invaded the city in a totally unexpected manner and took the Babylonians by complete surprise.

Was God surprised? No. He had described nearly 200 years earlier how a leader specifically named “Cyrus” would conquer great kings by going through “the two leaved gates”!

Soon after this, Cyrus issued the order to allow the Jews to voluntarily return to their homeland and Jerusalem, and—in another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy—instructed them to rebuild the Temple (Ezra 1:2–4; 6:2–5).

WHAT IS GOD DOING?

Religious people ask themselves: “What does the Creator God have in mind?” But popular interest in religion ebbs and flows with world events. “Religion was in the air after September 11 in a way that hadn’t been the case for a long time and may not be the case for a long time in the future,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, some secular commentators said religion in general was a problem, but Kohut’s Pew Center found that the American people had a different opinion. “By a 2-1 margin, people said the September terrorist attacks were the result of too little religion in the world rather than too much,” according to the Pew poll (San Diego Union-Tribune, March 22, 2002). That poll also showed that 52 percent of Americans thought religion’s influence was already declining, just six months after a surge of interest in September 2001. Yet most Americans still consider religion important; 69 percent of those surveyed in a September 2012 Gallup Poll said they were either “very religious” or “moderately religious.” About 31 percent said they were “nonreligious.”

Despite secular skepticism, we can find ultimate understanding about the resolution of these future “perilous times” in a book many people may feel sentimental toward, but really know very little about. This book is the Holy Bible. It speaks with authority about the future of our nations. It reveals prophecies about awesome events that will overtake all humanity.

Although little realized by people in the modern world, the Jesus Christ of the Bible was the greatest forecaster of future events who ever lived. The book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse, describes what Jesus Christ directly revealed.

Notice the first verse of this exciting and meaningful book: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John” (Revelation 1:1).

But these prophecies were not only given in the Apocalypse. They were also spoken by Jesus Christ while He was on the earth. The entire chapters of Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 are devoted to Jesus’ famous Olivet Prophecy—a vital prophecy describing the sequence of events leading directly to the end of civilization as we know it today, and leading to the beginning of a very different age.

The discussion began as Jesus’ disciples asked: “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and the end of the age?”—this age of man’s rule (Matthew 24:3). After listing a series of conditions, including the appearance of false prophets, local and world wars, famines, disease epidemics and earthquakes, Jesus described a “Great Tribulation” on the earth—”such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (v. 21).

The worst time of trouble ever to hit this earth? Tragically, yes. The Jesus Christ of your Bible prophesied this in unmistakable terms. The Gospel of Mark renders Jesus’ statement this way: “For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be” (13:19).

Grinding poverty, drought and starvation, raging disease epidemics and, finally, worldwide violence will threaten the extinction of biological life—all these are clearly predicted in the Bible to occur near the end of this human civilization.

But is that really the end of it all?

Jesus stated unequivocally: “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved [or left alive]; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). Those days are to be cut short for the “elect’s sake”—the sake of true Christians who genuinely serve and obey God.

However, before God’s merciful intervention, He will allow the Western world to experience a time of unparalleled national anguish—called in Bible terminology the “Great Tribulation.” It will be a time of national punishment affecting the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and most of the nations of northwestern Europe.

WHY THE GREAT TRIBULATION?

God Almighty is the One who makes and unmakes nations. He is the One who—thousands of years ago—foretold the soon-coming formation of a final European empire or “United States of Europe,” which He will use to punish America, Britain, Canada and the other nations just mentioned!

In Isaiah 47:1, God speaks of a virgin daughter of ancient Babylon. He describes her future punishment: “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms. I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, and given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; on the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily” (vv. 5–6).

Notice that God speaks of “My people” and “My inheritance.” Remember that the house of Israel is called “My inheritance” and God calls them “My people,” or “My house” or “My heritage” repeatedly throughout the Old Testament (Isaiah 19:25; Jeremiah 12:7–9).

Remember also that it was the ancient Assyrians who invaded and conquered the Ten Tribes of northern Israel.

But this prophecy pictures a daughter—a political, economic and religious system in the spirit of ancient Babylon—that will rise up in modern times and impose a “yoke” upon the physical descendants of God’s people, Israel.

Notice that she is called the Lady of Kingdoms, and says: “I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children” (Isaiah 47:8). We should not use faulty human reasoning to identify this daughter of Babylon; we should let the Bible interpret the Bible. In Revelation 17, we find this same false system described perfectly.

The Bible uses symbols to illustrate spiritual concepts. Revelation 17symbolically tells of a great whore, clothed in purple and scarlet, who politically lobbies and “gets into bed” with the secular leaders of this prophesied economic and politico-military power (v. 18). This scarlet woman represents a false religious system labeled as: “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” (v. 5). The “waters” where she holds dominion are “peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues” (v. 15). This evidently describes a type of polyglot federation or empire. Truly, as Isaiah prophesied, she is the “Lady of Kingdoms.”

Also, compare Isaiah 47:7–8 with Revelation 18:7, which states: “For she says in her heart, I sit as queen [have power], and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.”

The Apostle John wrote that, in the end-time when this prophecy was to be understood, “there are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time” (Revelation 17:10).

Serious students of prophecy realize that the sequence of five kings refers to the “Holy Roman Empire” which, under five different “kingdoms,” dominated Central Europe and the Mediterranean region for more than 1,000 years, from late antiquity to the early 19th century. By transforming and reinventing itself repeatedly, this political system proved as hardy as any tenacious weed. Its most famous heads were, in chronological order: Justinian, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, Charles von Habsburg and Napoleon.

John also wrote of a sixth kingdom—”one is”— that would be ruling when this prophecy came to be understood in the end-time. That kingdom was the revival that culminated in the Hitler-Mussolini “Axis” of Italy and Germany during World War II.

Now, as we watch end time events coming together, we know that one final king “has not yet come.” That leader is “waiting in the wings” to emerge on the world stage—within the lifetimes of many of you reading this booklet.

DOES THE BIBLE MENTION THE USA AND UK?

Abraham was promised that his descendants would be as the sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:16–17). This promise was passed to his grandson, Jacob. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and told him his descendants would include a “nation and a company of nations” (Genesis 35:10–12). In his old age, Jacob passed these great promises on to his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:15–20). These promises were not just to be “top dog” in the Middle East. The descendants of Israel were to be “high above all nations” (Deuteronomy 26:19).

Where and when did God fulfill these promises? The kingdoms of David and Solomon were great, but did they fit this description? No! Although Solomon’s kingdom was probably the wealthiest of its day, it was a single nation, not a “nation and a company of nations.” Furthermore, its size and population were very small compared to the Chinese empire at the time. Since Solomon, no nation headquartered at Jerusalem could claim to be “high above all nations.” Has God forgotten these many promises over the long years?

Certainly not! The answer is found in 1 Kings 12 and 2 Kings 17, 24 and 25. After the death of King Solomon, Israel and Judah became separate nations and are still separate today! Israel was conquered by Assyria, and then Judah was conquered by Babylon, more than 100 years later. Both were deported, but only a portion of the nation of Judah returned!

It is a fascinating story, too long to tell in this booklet, but the facts are there. The modern-day nation calling itself “Israel” is really the descendant of the ancient kingdom of Judah—the Jews. The ancient kingdom of Israel lost its identity and is now “as the sand which is on the seashore”—the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and much of northwestern Europe. The biblical and historical evidence is there, though many prefer to ignore it. Together, we are the physical descendants of the biblical patriarch Israel. The Almighty will rebuke and chasten us for our mounting sins, just as He does every son He loves (Hebrews 12:6).

If you would like to know the real truth about this vital subject, please request our free booklet, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy. If you want to know who you are—and if you want to know the origin and prophetic identity of the British-descended peoples of the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and northwestern Europe—then write to the regional address nearest you (listed at the back of this booklet) for your free copy of this fascinating and informative booklet.

THE FINAL HUMANLY DEVISED EMPIRE

The most recent revival of the Babylonian-Roman system was pictured as existing when this prophecy was first understood by Herbert W. Armstrong in the late 1930s. It was the Mussolini-Hitler Axis power bloc. Mussolini acknowledged that he was attempting to revive the Roman Empire system.

In Revelation 17:10–12, we see that, after the sixth head, one final head is to rise up—one more revival of this system is to take place! Notice that the ten horns pictured on the original beast are ten kings—or dictators! They have received no kingdom (power) as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. Here we see that ten kings or dictators are to rise up simultaneously and unite in pledging their support to a charismatic leader whom the Bible calls “the Beast.” Where will this last revival of the Holy Roman Empire be? Who will these kings and nations be?

The answers are clear! This empire, uniting church and state, has resurrected itself repeatedly in Central Europe as well as Mediterranean-bordering lands. This is the same church-state power that God condemns throughout Revelation 17 and 18.

It is in continental Europe where the system will rise again! This system will have the form of a “United States of Europe”—a European Empire, which will undoubtedly be dominated not by democracy-loving Britain, but by a governmental system that consolidates power in the hands of a few key players in Europe and has an official connection with a powerful religious influence!

Notice also in Revelation 17:14 that this system finally comes to its end waging war against the Lamb—Jesus Christ—at His Second Coming as King of kings. The time for these milestones is soon, as the prophecies in Matthew 24 indicate.

Prophecy is dual. God used ancient Assyria to punish the Ten Tribes of northern Israel more than 100 years before the house of Judah was taken captive by Babylon (2 Kings 17:6; 25:21).

In this time of the end, however, God will use the modern descendants of ancient Assyria, together with the prophesied modern revival of the Babylonian/Holy Roman Empire system, to punish His wayward, sinning people—primarily Canada, Britain and America. These modern descendants of the patriarch Israel will be punished for their sins, just as surely as their ancestors were. The Jews, too, along with the other remaining tribes of Israel and the Gentiles who live among them, will also receive their share of punishment at the same time.

Let me be very plain and clear. In the years just ahead of us, you will read and hear news reports about the decline of the world’s English-speaking peoples! It will not usually be phrased that way, but you will notice, increasingly, that the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand will all have more and more problems. They will have financial difficulties. They will gradually be pushed aside in the arena of world leadership. When they do try to lead and intervene militarily or otherwise in world affairs, they will make more and more mistakes than ever and be more resented than ever. The Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Iranians and others who now call America the “Great Satan” will then be joined—at least in spirit—by a large number of important nations.

At first, many nations will profess to feel sorry for these nations’ present ineptitude and difficulties. But, gradually, they will turn increasingly hostile and bitter—against the U.S. especially. Because of envy, they will feel that America has been the big man on the block for too long. The U.S. has been rich and powerful, and has been the exporter of decadent entertainment and a selfish lifestyle that causes genuine disgust and revulsion in other societies.

DEADBEAT NATION

The U.S. currently owes trillions of dollars that it will never be able to repay! Who will be left holding the bag—and holding it angrily? A nation that was once the economic engine of the planet is now a debtor that may soon face an unwanted accounting. For decades, America has at least been able to earn a good return on its overseas assets, thus shielding it from the worst effects of the deficit. But this phenomenon is coming to an end.

To get an idea of how dramatically America’s role has shifted, note what happened when Chinese official news agency Xinhua reported concerns about America’s financial stability, after the U.S lost its triple AAA rating from Standard & Poor:

“In a harshly-worded commentary by the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday, China gave its first official comments on the United States losing its gilded AAA long-term credit rating from Standard & Poor’s.

‘China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets,’ Xinhua said.

China also urged the United States to apply ‘common sense’ to ‘cure its addiction to debts’ by cutting military and social welfare expenditure.

‘The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,’ Xinhua wrote” (“China blasts U.S. over debt problems, calls for dollar oversight” (Reuters, August 6, 2011).

America’s leaders need to wake up! The days of unchallenged U.S. financial power are behind us. Americans are beginning to reap the consequences of several generations of selfish and greedy economic choices! And nations that have traditionally lagged behind the U.S. in development and global influence are increasingly losing their former respect for America on account of its foolishness!

Perhaps other nations may convince themselves that they are justified in attacking a nation whose renowned exports include a lifestyle promoting drugs, sex, degenerate music and bad debt. Will we be accused by other nations in the future of borrowing their money and continuing to live “high on the hog” with no real intention of ever repaying them?

Notice God’s instruction to His true ministers just before the horrifying Great Tribulation begins: “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?”‘

“Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'” (Ezekiel 33:10–11).

Yes, indeed.

If we would, as a people, truly repent and turn to God and begin to keep His commandments, He could relent. He could postpone this national punishment for another generation or two, for He says: “Turn, turn from your evil ways!”

But how many of you really believe that Britain and America will experience a genuine revival of true religion? Do you really think we will start studying Scripture and begin living by it? Or will we stop being known as nations filled with the criminally inclined? Will we stop murdering millions of unborn children? Will we stop indulging in the illicit sex that produces fatherless children by the millions?

Do we have the guts to rid our entertainment media of rotten sexual perversions and violence? Will we return to exercising self-control to stop abusing liquor and drugs? Will we stop divorcing our spouses or abusing our children, and turn to honor God by keeping His commandments and doing those things that are pleasing to Him (1 John 3:22)?

Most of us know better than that. But—unless a real, genuine repentance occurs—the Great Tribulation is just ahead!

Only the Second Coming of Christ as King of kings will spark a real change of heart on a nationwide scale—and even that will come only after tremendous suffering. What a paradox! What a sad situation it is that before this world can experience the best of times we must go through the very worst of “perilous times.” But Jesus Christ is coming again, and He will set up a real, literal government here on this earth to save us from the mess we have gotten ourselves into. Jesus’ government will teach mankind the laws and ways of God in that future time. People who fervently desire to be genuinely Christian can and should be preparing—right now—to have an active part in Christ’s soon-coming Kingdom.

WHAT DID JESUS REALLY SAY?

Throughout His Gospel, Jesus constantly spoke about a coming Kingdom of God on earth. In the parable of the pounds, Jesus showed the reward for those who used their talents and time to zealously serve God. To the one whose pound had increased ten times, Jesus said: “Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities” (Luke 19:17).

Jesus did not say that His faithful servants would “roll around heaven all day”—with nothing to do! Rather, He said that the saints would participate in the coming Kingdom of God. They would rule over five cities or ten cities—depending on how much they grew spiritually and multiplied their “pounds” or “talents.” The real Jesus Christ predicted that He would return to this earth as King of kings and set up a world government (Matthew 25:31–34; Revelation 19:11–16).

So Jesus’ message—the Gospel of the Kingdom—involves a world government. There is a great need for purity, decency and peace to be restored to this earth. That is why the Apostle Peter proclaimed that God would again “send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20–21).

Peter said that God’s appointed spokesmen foretold, throughout time, a new beginning for the world! What did these spokesmen predict about the direct government of God being established on earth?

TOMORROW’S WORLD

The prophet Micah described these coming days of peace: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken” (Micah 4:1–4).

Note that men will not learn war anymore. This is the language of peace and prosperity, with people enjoying rest and the fruit of personal endeavor. None shall be afraid—for not only nationally, but individually, mankind will learn to obey God’s laws.

The “law” that will go forth from Jerusalem to the nations (v. 2) is, of course, the Ten Commandments. The basic spiritual law of God has been the foundation of God’s instruction to mankind from the beginning.

During His ministry on earth, Jesus was asked by a young man about the way to eternal life. Jesus answered: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” the young man persisted. Jesus responded: “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness'” (Matthew 19:17–18).

A global society based on the Ten Commandments, with the promised help of the Holy Spirit to empower people to keep them, would have no wars and virtually no crime, adultery, broken marriages, juvenile delinquency or lying. National budgets could eliminate all expenditures for the military and most of what is now spent for the local and national police systems. Many other “necessary” government services could also be eliminated as “no longer necessary.” Such services contribute quite heavily to high taxes. With no lying or stealing, you can imagine the massive amounts of money saved simply because there would be no need to worry about burglary, shoplifting, business rip-offs and cheating on taxes.

What a blessed society!

Yet it is coming—as sure as the rising and the setting of tomorrow’s sun! And the people living in this society will—through Christ’s mercy, help and guidance—be keeping the Ten Commandments as a way of life.

As God promised for that time: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.… I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26–27).

Their land will become fabulously fruitful, and more prosperous than it has been for thousands of years. Men and women will be given a new spirit—of obedience to God—so the world will finally be at peace.

What many fail to realize is that this coming time of peace under Christ’s rule on earth is also a major element of the Gospel or “Good News” that Christ Himself preached. It is a vital message about the coming world government!

From the beginning to the end of His ministry on earth, Jesus Christ constantly talked about the coming Kingdom of God. The word “Kingdom” is about government—a way of running a country or group of nations.

After teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus said: “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43). In what is called the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to pray: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). He instructs us to pray that God’s government will be restored to this earth!

CHRIST’S MILLENNIAL RULE

When Jesus appeared to the Apostles after His resurrection, they asked Him: “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). If the Kingdom of God was merely spiritual fluff and not a real government, foretold by dozens of Old Testament prophecies and by Christ’s own statements, then Jesus had here a marvelous opportunity to dispel that notion.

But did He?

On the contrary, Christ said: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority” (v. 7). So the Apostles kept right on preaching the Good News of the coming government of God. To the end of the Apostolic Age, Christ’s Apostles continually preached about the coming Kingdom or Government of God to be set up on earth, with Christ Himself as “King of kings” (Revelation 19:16).

Even after the death of the original Apostles, many of the early church leaders continued to teach and preach the message of the coming 1,000-year reign of Christ on the earth. The eminent historian, Edward Gibbon, wrote about how widespread this teaching was in early Christianity: “The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labor and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection” (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 403).

We are now near the end of 6,000 years of recorded human history! It will soon be time for Christ’s Kingdom to be set up on this earth. Although some may believe that 6,000 years of recorded history have already passed since Adam and Eve, this is clearly not the case! Many students of biblical chronology acknowledge that, because of differing months in the accession years of the kings of Judah, the presently accepted chronology set out years ago by Archbishop Ussher may be off by as much as 20 to 30 years. Therefore, it is easily within the parameters of biblical chronology for the first 6,000 years of human history to last for as much as another 25 years or so.

However, with prophetic events now speeding up, we feel that these 6,000 years will probably be completed much sooner than that! This will be the end of 6,000 years of human society under the sway of Satan the Devil (Revelation 12:9; 20:3). It will be the end of six millennial “days” during which mankind has written the lesson of human suffering—to show the great lesson that man’s ways are wrong—that humanity apart from God does not know how to live in peace and happiness.

The living Jesus Christ must return to save us from ourselves—from literally annihilating all life from off this planet through nuclear war and other means of mass destruction (Matthew 24:22)! Those who truly heed Jesus’ message will have the awesome opportunity to join the returning Christ in ruling over the nations of this earth during the soon-coming seventh millennial day—the millennial Sabbath of 1,000 years, during which Christ and the true saints restore peace to this troubled planet. The Apostle John was inspired to describe the coming Millennium: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6).

TRUE CHRISTIANS WILL HAVE A JOB TO DO

The true saints will not be floating around in heaven after Jesus Christ’s return! Rather, they will have a challenging and exciting responsibility—under Christ who will be King of kings. As Revelation 2:26–27 states: “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—’He shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the potter’s vessels shall be broken to pieces’—as I also have received from My Father.”

Notice that the saints’ future role is to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Obviously, there are not rebellious nations up in heaven! So they will be stationed here on earth—where the problems are, and where they can work with Christ to provide the solutions.

In the “prayer of the saints” given in Revelation 5:8–10, it indicates that God has “made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” And Jesus promised the Twelve Apostles: “And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29–30).

Individual Christian “overcomers” will rule over cities, and each of the Twelve Apostles will rule over an entire tribe of Israel here on earth. To whom will the Twelve Apostles report?

In describing the re-gathering of the people of Israel from their captivity in the coming Great Tribulation, God inspired Hosea to write: “Afterward the children of Israel shall return, seek the Lord their God and David their king, and fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:5). So in the “latter days,” all“Israel”—including the American and British-descended peoples—will be re-gathered. King David will be resurrected from the dead—along with all of God’s true saints. Then David will rule again over all twelve tribes, or nations, of Israel—as he did, so faithfully and effectively, 3,000 years ago!

In Jeremiah 30, God describes how He will restore Israel from its coming captivity: “Foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them” (vv. 8–9). Note that nearly all scholars agree that Jeremiah was written in approximately 600bc—nearly 400 years after King David’s death. So these scriptures are describing what happens at the time of the resurrection from the dead (John 5:28–29).

Jesus Christ will return as King of kings. King David of the Bible will literally be resurrected to become one of the spirit-born kings reporting to Christ. Serving under David will be the Twelve Apostles. Serving under them will be thousands of the true saints of God—ruling over individual cities as we have already seen in Luke 19:11–19.

“David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them” (Ezekiel 37:24). So all Israel shall once again learn God’s laws and His statutes, and the nations will have rulers who are fully instructed and skilled in the laws of God—something God always intended (Deuteronomy 17:18–20).

Please think, my friends! We are not talking about “pie in the sky” sentimentalism! The great God who inspired the above scriptures either means what He says—or else the Bible is lying to us!

THE BIBLICAL MESSAGE IS CONSISTENT

From Genesis to Revelation, the biblical prophecies point toward a literal government to be set up on this earth by God. As the prophet Daniel put it very succinctly: “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44).

After the Babylonian, Persian, Greco-Macedonian and Roman Empires—with Rome’s seven “revivals,” including the soon-coming final revival with ten kings or rulers giving their power to a super dictator called the “Beast” (Revelation 17:9–14)—the living Jesus Christ will come as King of kings (Revelation 19:16) to rule this earth and straighten out human society before it destroys all humans from this planet (Matthew 24:21–22).

If we will “believe” and respond to God’s message, you and I will have the magnificent opportunity to be among those “other kings” and rulers assisting Christ in this very real government that God will set up on this earth! God inspired the Apostle Paul to explain this same point: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:2–3).

Then Paul explains that the true Christians in God’s Church need to practice correct government and learn to “judge” problems between brethren in the church, because true Christians are now “in training” to become kings and priests under Jesus Christ!

Why have you never heard this before? Why is this clear biblical message virtually never preached in the “mainstream” churches of this present society?

Somewhere on this earth is Christ’s true “little flock” (Luke 12:32), which is preaching the Truth of God’s great purpose. Although God is not trying to “save” everyone now (or He would be succeeding at it!), His true Church is to preach the good news of the coming Kingdom or government of God as a “witness” to all nations (Matthew 24:14). People in this Church are taught the genuine purpose for their lives. They are instructed in how to prepare to be literal kings under Christ and under King David in the coming Kingdom of God. Christ’s coming Kingdom is very real to them!

Is it to you?

OUR CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY

All of us who want to be part of that Kingdom must learn to think like King David, who wrote: “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me” (Psalm 119:97–98). We need to love and to meditate on God’s spiritual law, the Ten Commandments. We need to study the statutes of God and especially how they are all magnified in the New Testament. This is how we learn God’s righteous and merciful ways of abundant living. Then, we will be far more qualified to teach and administer those laws in Tomorrow’s World—the coming Kingdom of God!

Many other scriptures make it clear that the Kingdom of God is a literal government to be set up on this earth. The true saints of God have before them an awesome challenge and opportunity! For they will rule not only human beings on this earth, but also the angelic hosts whom God now uses to “minister” to human beings and help them prepare for their coming responsibilities in Tomorrow’s World (Hebrews 1:14).

Some people who have not really studied the Bible may find this truth quite startling, as it is a departure from the common misconception that at death we float off to heaven with nothing really to do! Yet, the inspired Word of God continually sets before us this calling, this hope and this Work.

This is the reward of—and the awesome challenge for—the true saints of God. We need to use our talents and abilities now in God’s service. We need to overcome sin and Satan and so be truly prepared to serve under the living Jesus Christ.

Can all this be spiritualized away? Are true Christians really called to just drift off to heaven and do nothing for all eternity?

After describing how the final “evil empire” is taken away and destroyed, notice what Daniel prophesied: “Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (Daniel 7:27).

Coming right after the destruction of the final revival of the Roman Empire—the final attempt at humanly devised one-world government—this is obviously speaking of a literal, divine government being set up on this earth, which will be given to the “saints of the Most High.”

How clear!

In Psalm 149, we read a plain statement about the opportunities of the true saints of God to deal with the dictators who will exalt themselves just before Christ’s return to earth. Notice: “Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the written judgment—this honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord!” (vv. 5–9).

If you and I will genuinely surrender ourselves to the living Jesus Christ, if we will obey Him and serve Him, then the Father will give us the magnificent opportunity to help bring real peace and joy to this earth at last, for we will have learned the way of peace, which the nations of this earth do not now know (Isaiah 59:8).

Remember God’s own description of “faithful” Christians: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

GOD’S PURPOSE STANDS

God foretells during these “latter days” that humanity’s “knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4). Perhaps the distinctive hallmark of our time is the explosion of material knowledge. Technological changes are totally overturning what we used to think of as “normal.” In His wisdom, the Creator knew that when our focus would be primarily on materialism, our lives would be entrapped by idolatry and paganism. What we are sowing today, we shall reap tomorrow. The One who delivered us again and again from past national threats like conquest by the Spanish Armada and annihilation by the Nazis at Dunkirk, has definitely prophesied that since we have rejected Him and His ways, He will now set His hand—in love—to punish us and humble us in a coming Great Tribulation!

We could only forestall this by a national change of heart and, individually, by a sincere return to God that demonstrates a willingness to follow His ways, His righteous laws and His rule over our lives. Will we?

If not, the great Creator of heaven and earth will intervene in our leadership and that of other countries. He will distress us through weather, earthquakes, disease epidemics and other disasters. He will allow perverted demon spirits to strike at and destroy the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic nations and their allies through their influence over envious, hateful leaders yet to appear on the world scene! And greatly increased terrorist attacks will serve as an additional tool to “break” the pride of our power (Leviticus 26:19)!

God is Almighty! He has the power to bring about the inspired prophecies of His Word. God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.

CHRIST’S MESSAGE A COMING REALITY

The powerful Good News that God sent to mankind by Jesus Christ is not only His wonderful offer of total forgiveness from our past sins and mistakes, but also the message of a world government soon to be set up and ruling all the earth! It will not be a warlike, competitive human government. Rather, the Creator of all humanity will intervene to save, to teach and to bring us to spiritual maturity.

His rule will change everything around you—the entire human society, the educational systems, the cultures and class structures—and it will eliminate the politics, the wars and the sufferings! These are massive changes we are talking about! Our daily environment—our diet of television, the kind of radio programs and music we listen to, the threat of mugging, rape and murder in our streets, our parks and even in our schools—will be changed for the better!

Do not kid yourself! This is not religious “fluff.” This will be the prophesied handiwork of the real God, who made us in His image, intervening to shake this world to its senses and, finally, to save the world and bring it true peace, prosperity and happiness.

Even the physical earth itself—suffering these many centuries because of human sin and neglect—will be restored to beauty. “The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1).

These are God’s plans for the future, and He has the total wisdom and supreme power to bring them about! You need to come to know and understand the will of the great God who will soon intervene in our world and change everything!

If you would like to learn more, and be able to really prove these matters from the Bible, then keep viewing the Tomorrow’s World television program and reading the Tomorrow’s World magazine. Please write for the free literature we offer on this subject, and study your own Bible as never before!

And if you genuinely want to act on this information, and on the other powerful truths you are receiving through this Work, then write or phone the regional office nearest you listed at the end of this booklet! Request a visit, and give us a phone number where we may reach you. No one will come to your home without first making an appointment with you at a time and place convenient for you. Such a visit will open up the opportunity to talk to a representative of this Work who believes and teaches the Truth. You will then have the chance to discuss your Bible questions and other related matters—and to ask about meeting with a group of faithful Christians if you wish. There will be no request for money and no pressure to do anything or “join” anything.

The God of creation will intervene in human affairs—and soon! Ultimately, it will be a positive and wonderful development—beyond what most of us can now grasp. Even so, we all need to understand and be prepared for what God has definitely planned for our future.

Get ready! Humbly seek God and His revealed will in the Holy Bible. Be willing to do what God says. Then, God’s intervention will be an awesome blessing to you and your family. Just as you have seen prophecy fulfilled in the past—and seen God’s promises come true in your life now—you will know God’s promises about the future are sure. Remember what Jesus told His faithful followers in Luke 21:28: “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Booklet Category

Current Events

Prophecy

Fourteen Signs Announcing Christ’s Return

4uwzvo — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 19:43:49 +0000

Fourteen Signs Announcing Christ’s Return 4uwzvo Mon, 02/28/2022 - 19:43

Fourteen Signs Announcing Christ’s Return

Roderick C. Meredith (1930-2017)

Booklet Media

#Jesus Christ

#Prophecy

#Revelation

Do you know what lies ahead in your future? What about the future of your nation and the world? We are not living in ordinary times. We are nearing the end of an age—the end of a civilization.

Our time truly fulfills the words that Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke at the beginning of the Great Depression: “This generation has a rendezvous with destiny.” Far more than the 1930s generation, which was then fast approaching the most destructive war in the world’s history, we, today, truly have a rendezvous with destiny! A world-shaking crisis is inexorably building and will, in the near future, explode the appearance of normalcy that still pervades Western civilization at this time.

Presently, the news media is randomly reporting tragic events, explaining their significance in a way that the average man or woman can understand. You need to know that the progression of disturbing news stories is not random and inconsequential. In fact, they foreshadow remarkable key trends and specific events that will change everything you are familiar with in the next few decades!

How can anyone know the future for sure? Who really understands the big picture?

There is one Source who really knows what will happen. Did you realize that about one-fourth of the entire Bible is prophecy, and that about 90 percent of all prophecy is for “the end time”—the time just ahead of us?

These predicted events are sure. Of course, some people are not interested in Bible prophecy. But they should be, since it will affect their own lives, their families, their jobs and their futures. There is a real God, and the Bible speaks for Him. God inspired the words of these prophecies, and they are sure. We had better wake up and believe they will happen! By the time you finish reading this booklet your eyes will be opened to understand the significance of today’s news and where it is all leading.

Notice what the Apostle Peter wrote about the Bible’s prophecies: “So we have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true. You will do well to pay close attention to everything they have written, for, like lights shining into dark corners, their words help us to understand many things that otherwise would be dark and difficult.… For no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God” (2 Peter 1:19–21, The Living Bible). Why did God preserve these prophecies for us? Because the great God is working out a marvelous purpose here below, nationally and individually. We need to study God’s inspired prophecies if we wish to understand His purpose!

CAN THE ALMOST UNIMAGINABLE HAPPEN?

Do you know what the most important news story of our generation will be? What is the biggest event that will shake the entire earth within the lifetime of most of you? The Second Coming of Christ will be the most important event of this generation. Christ is coming back!

Make no mistake about it. Jesus’ return will not happen secretly off in some cave with no one knowing about it. Jesus Christ will literally come back to the city of Jerusalem, to the top of the Mount of Olives, to begin governing the entire earth! There will be a divine, one-world government. What a shock that will be to all humanity!

This event is specifically predicted throughout the Old and New Testaments of your Bible. Hundreds of millions of people at least superficially believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. The Second Coming is predicted in each of the four Gospels, in the book of Acts and in the epistles of Paul, James, Peter and John. Jesus’ return is the focal point of the entire book of Revelation. If you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, then you must believe in the Second Coming of Christ.

If the King of kings is soon returning to establish the Kingdom of God upon this earth, you should be getting ready for it. You should know how it will affect your business, your economic future, your personal safety and everything around you.

You can know what the signs are that will precede Christ’s coming and watch for them. Why stay in ignorance about the meaning of the events taking place around you? Jesus commands His genuine disciples to watch and to be ready. “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Your entire life is about to change. Events will unfold soon to destroy the Western world’s way of life as we have known it.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke each contain an account of Christ teaching His disciples what to watch for before He returns. Luke wrote: “So you, likewise, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things are fulfilled. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Luke 21:31–33).

Jesus Christ gave a series of signs that must occur before He returns. Evidently, the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy would happen within the lifetime of one generation—once the signs relative to that specific prophecy begin. So Christ is coming back to this earth, but not right away. Not until these signs have occurred! People who go running around mouthing their own ideas and predictions about Christ’s return “tonight” are false prophets. They are not heeding the words of Jesus Christ. The signs listed in Jesus’ words must occur first.

Soon, mankind will suffer through the most devastating, bloody war in human history—called, in biblical terminology, the “Great Tribulation.” “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved [alive]; but for the elect’s sake [for the sake of God’s repentant, obedient people] those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21–22).

We are now approaching that time, and these things are now being revealed. “Many shall be purified, cleansed, and refined [God is examining you and me, testing us to see who is willing to obey His word], but the wicked shall continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand”(Daniel 12:10,NRSV).

Do you understand that our degenerate, corrupt nations are headed for a big fall? Do you fully realize that America’s national debts are almost out of control and that, proportionately, Canada’s indebtedness is even greater? Can you grasp the full meaning—in God’s eyes—of the spiritual and moral toboggan slide of our entire Western civilization?

If you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, then you should pay close attention to His instruction to you: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). Read on, dear reader, to see what things to “watch” for!

1. WARS, VIOLENCE AND LAWLESSNESS

Watch for wars—big wars, little wars, ethnic wars, wars of all sorts and escalating violence and increasing lawlessness—which will increasingly affect all of the world, especially the English-speaking nations.

A common perspective is that the world will somehow get better. Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, talked often about a “new world order” as though there was going to be peace. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor to former U.S. President George W. Bush, described her vision of U.S. foreign policy as to “help developing countries move from war to peace, poverty to prosperity, poor governance to democracy and the rule of law” (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008). Yet increasing numbers of people around the world consider the U.S. a threat to world peace. An April 2007 poll by the Forsa Institute found that German citizens consider the U.S. the greatest threat to world peace, with 48 percent naming the U.S. as the main instigator of war and lawlessness around the globe.

This post–Cold War time is unstable and extremely volatile. Will peace emerge from the chaos? Brian Urquhart, former United Nations Undersecretary-General, reminds us that “in the age of humanitarian intervention, the human catastrophes of failed states and civil wars will continue to come before the Security Council” (“A Force Behind the U.N.,”The New York Times, August 7, 2003). Indeed, the “new world order” is only producing a faltering, fading peace. Events will grow worse, not better.

Why is our civilization bankrupt of workable solutions to global, peaceful cooperation among nations and ethnic groups? Norman Lear, long-time television producer and political activist, clearly delineated the problem in a speech addressed to the National Press Club. “At no time in my life,” said Lear, “has our culture been so estranged from spiritual values.… Our problems lie beyond the reach of politics alone.”

The Gospel of Matthew contains Jesus’ prophecy to His disciples about the state of the world just prior to His Second Coming. “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:6–7). While humanity has lived with warfare over the millennia, our time in history is unprecedented because of the massive annihilative potential of modern weapons and the massive global scale of potential conflict.

Verse 22 is a prophetic qualifier that only points to our time of high technology and its awful, brilliantly evil weapons of mass destruction. “And unless those days were shortened [the time of world war using these new weapons], no flesh would be saved [human extinction]; but for the elect’s [God’s repentant, obedient saints] sake those days will be shortened.” Today’s world is full of widespread wars and rumors of wars. There are many ethnic wars taking place—not only in the former Yugoslavia, but also in the former Soviet Union and in many places throughout Africa and Asia. Dozens of regional wars are now being fought around the world!

America will not escape this increasing intra-national and international strife. The day will come when the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in 2001 will seem like minor skirmishes as America’s old allies become unstable, and its old alliances fall apart. Civil wars and wars between nation-states will increase. There will be little wars and big wars, resulting finally in a great war that will culminate at the battle of Armageddon in the Jezreel Valley in Israel—at which point Christ will return.

Some think this is alarmist, pessimistic thinking, unwarranted because of mankind’s innate goodness. Such naïve people exude a quirky kind of optimism, proclaiming in the best “Pollyanna” tradition, “Oh, things are going to get better.” Well, as a minister of God, I am commissioned to tell you they are not going to get better until after Christ returns. Yes, there is a wonderful Tomorrow’s World, but realistically you should realize that life will grow very dark and desperate before a new world dawns.

Have you noticed the completely inexplicable outbreaks of violence—random shootings, murders and mass killings? Jesus Christ predicted this societal breakdown just before his return. “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). In the United States, we used to think we were a Christian society; perhaps some still do. But today, our leisure time entertainment—television, movies and the Internet—rivals ancient Rome’s lust for sex, drugs (including alcohol), violence and brutality.

Paradoxically, the United States and Canada have remarkably high percentages of their population who say they believe in God and go to church regularly. This hypocritical national behavior was foreseen as characteristic of the human society existing just before the Messiah’s return.

The Apostle Paul was inspired to write: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1–5).

Men deny the authority of God, despite a show of religiosity. Paul commands, under inspiration of God, “From such people turn away” (v. 5)! Get away from people who talk about religion, but deny the authority of God, because they will mislead you. They will confuse you. This sassy, sarcastic, lust-filled generation is headed for big, big trouble. You need to recognize that and not be a part of it.

The sign of wars, increasing violence and lawlessness is the first thing to watch for.

2. DROUGHT AND FAMINE

Drought and famine—lack of rain and lack of food—will stalk the earth on a massive scale never seen before. Yes, these things will become much, much worse.

When there is drought you also have wildfires—range fires and forest fires. After the fires have burned off the brush, there is always the danger of floods when it resumes raining because there is no vegetation in the burned area’s watershed to retain the precipitation. These catastrophes of drought, famine, fire and flood naturally tend to go together. In Matthew 24:7, Jesus predicted: “And there will be famines. ”Worldwide famines will engender vicious competition and strife among nations over food. This will mean increased political and military danger, especially for the United States, Britain and the British-descended peoples, whose lands have typically been seen as the breadbasket of the world.

Those of us living in the advanced, developed world have thought these things would only occur in places like India, Bangladesh or Africa. How could famine happen to us? It is practically unthinkable to suggest that one dark day the supermarkets and restaurants would have to close due to lack of food! But famine, the pain of empty stomachs, will occur in the United States of America, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere among the English-speaking peoples of the world. Let us understand what God says and why.

Most people just do not understand that it is God Almighty who controls the weather and that He sometimes uses this power to punish nations that displease Him! King Solomon knew this. During the dedication of God’s temple in Jerusalem he acknowledged God’s power, “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they [the people] have sinned against You…” (1 Kings 8:35). Does God collectively punish a nation for mocking or ignoring His moral, ethical standards? You bet He does! “For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:30–31).

The book of Revelation confirms this coming famine. “When he had broken the third seal [shortly before the coming of Christ], I heard the third Living Being [an angelic personage] say, ‘Come!’ And I saw a black horse, with its rider holding a pair of balances in his hand. And a voice from among the four Living Beings said, ‘A loaf of bread for $20, or three pounds of barley flour, but there is no olive oil or wine’” (Revelation 6:5–6, The Living Bible).

Yet God is merciful and patient with individuals and nations that have a change of heart. Solomon also understood this point when he prayed, “…when they [the people] pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and give rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance” (1 Kings 8:35–36).

We need to recognize that God controls the weather! He punishes His own people when needed. If our nations would return to God with heartfelt repentance, and begin to keep His laws and live His way, then these plagues need not come. But how many of you believe this will really happen? How many of you believe that our nations will have a heartfelt repentance and get back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel? I think most of us know better. I wish they would, but I doubt that they will. Regrettably, our nations have some very hard lessons to learn about thumbing their noses at God.

3. EARTHQUAKES AND OTHER NATURAL CATASTROPHES

God prophesies that earthquakes and other natural catastrophes will increase as we approach the end of this age.

Los Angeles is regarded as the media capital of the world. More rotten, vile movies and television shows featuring murder, mayhem and illicit and perverted sex are produced in Los Angeles than in any place else in the world. California has long been regarded as the “leading edge” of almost any form of perversion known to man. So the great God who guides the affairs of men and nations has every right to punish such degeneracy and rebellion against His laws and His ways by a people He has blessed so much. And the people in California—as in most parts of the English-speaking world—have had many chances to learn the Truth in the past if they had any genuine interest.

“Why pick on Los Angeles?” some local journalists have asked. The better question would be, “Why not?” Maybe a good shaking up will get people’s attention!

Yet earthquakes affect people all around the world—not just in southern California. And Scripture tells us that, before Jesus Christ returns, there will be increasing “earthquakes in various places” (Mark 13:8; Matthew 24:7). In the last few years, most of you realize that there have been frequent earthquakes, sometimes in unusual places. This trend will continue because the Bible indicates that it will. Jesus Christ prophesied of them. And you, too, should be expecting them. Watch, as the number and magnitude of earthquakes grow, because they will become extremely devastating.

There had been earthquakes even in ancient times, as mentioned in the writings of Josephus (Antiquities, bk. 15, chap. 5, sec. 2). The Bible records specific instances of earthquakes in the past and predicts them in the future (Zechariah 14:4–5).

These earth-jarring occurrences arise from natural shifts and changes in the earth’s mantle, especially along worldwide earthquake belts or fault lines. As journalist William Broad pointed out, a million people died in earthquakes during the 20th century, and scientists acknowledge that the 21st “might see 10 times as many deaths, with a million lost in a single blow” (“Earthquakes: A Matter of Luck, Most of It Bad,” New York Times, September 28, 1999).

U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported in May 2008 that a 7.8 magnitude quake along the San Andreas Fault would likely result in more than 50,000 injuries, thousands of deaths, and $200 billion in quake-related damage (“The Shake Out Scenario,” U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 2008-1150). That is in a region where for decades there has been extensive warning about, and extensive preparation for, earthquakes. Yet human nature often leads people to ignore warnings. In the wake of China’s devastating May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, Chinese scientists have been quick to point out that they have for decades known the risk of a potentially catastrophic quake along the very fault that gave way. “But they say preparations for a quake there were cursory at best, and building codes remained well short of the codes that have become standard in other well-known earthquake zones” (“Experts Warned of Quake Risk in China,” New York Times, June 5, 2008).

In the near future, there will be more earthquakes even in places where they are not normally expected. A report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in September 2000 warned that while California is at greatest risk of severe economic harm from earthquakes, cities across the U.S. are also at risk of heavy damage—yet are not doing enough to prevent or prepare for such harm. Earthquake expert John Nance put the matter into perspective: “The Eastern Seaboard is in more danger than the West because they are abysmally unprepared, with building standards far less stringent than California which is ‘earthquake country’ in the thinking of many people. An earthquake in the American Midwest or somewhere in New England, for instance, could be devastating because there is so little readiness and the shock from the unexpected so overwhelming” (“Superquake May Lie Ahead Almost Anywhere in U.S.,” March 25, 1989).

In recent years, scientists have come to a better understanding of the immensity and magnitude of the tremendous fault systems that trace themselves underneath the whole earth. However, not all the earthquakes of the near future will be natural disasters—the usual groans and strains of planet earth’s crust. Some will be directly induced by God as a sign of His power, and will be designed to help people wake up. God will take a direct hand in the affairs of men. The earthquakes specifically mentioned by Jesus Christ as a foreshadowing sign of His return will be unusual by their location or unparalleled magnitude.

Why? Most of us understand. But remember that Jesus Christ directly predicted, “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7). Have there not always been earthquakes? Of course. So Jesus must have been speaking of more earthquakes than usual—and more powerful earthquakes. And certainly that is exactly what has been happening over the past several years!

In Isaiah 29:6, God says of Jerusalem: “You will be punished by the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire.” God says, “I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). He did punish ancient Jerusalem with earthquakes and storms. Now, He is beginning to punish modern Israel in the same way.

Dear readers, please watch for increasing earthquakes as a sign that Christ is coming soon. And if you would like to know more about God’s intervention in natural phenomena, write for your free copy of our booklet Who Controls the Weather?

4. DISEASE EPIDEMICS

A plague of disease epidemics is beginning to worry public health officials all around the world. AIDS is only the most discussed of these “new” diseases—the ebola virus, “mad cow disease” and many others scarcely heard of just ten years ago are now worrying public health experts worldwide. And many old scourges of humanity (malaria and tuberculosis to name just two) are reemerging as super, drug-resistant diseases that ignore penicillin and other drugs that were formerly used to combat them! Of course, degenerative diseases such as cancer and heart disease continue to affect greater numbers of people, as our food and water supplies become increasingly tainted with the pollutants of our technological age.

The Bible indicates clearly that future disease epidemics will be, in part, spread by wild animals (Revelation 6:8). Some of the worst plagues of humanity have been animal borne, like bubonic plague. Bubonic plague is a naturally endemic problem among wild animals in certain regions. It is only due to society’s diligence in maintaining sanitary standards that such problems stay at the fringes of civilization.

People are aware that whenever society is disrupted due to war or natural calamities, there is always the threat of disease. But these disease problems are just a small foretaste of the deadly contagious pandemics that are prophesied to sweep the earth. “I heard the fourth Living Being say, ‘Come!’ And now I saw a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death. And there followed after him another horse whose rider’s name was Hell. They were given control of one-fourth of the earth, to kill with war and famine and disease and wild animals” (Revelation 6:7–8,The Living Bible).

The Greek word translated “pale” is chloros, which signifies the pale green or sickly yellow-greenish color of severe disease. Jesus Christ predicted that great “pestilences” would be one of the signs to mankind to warn of His imminent return (Matthew 24:7).

Would God afflict the earth with lethal disease plagues? Moses was inspired of God to write this: “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth” (Deuteronomy 28:1). God, speaking directly through Moses, is saying that if His people today would obey Him, and diligently observe to do His commandments, He would set us on high above all the nations of the earth. That is exactly what God did for the ancient Kingdom of Israel at the time of King David. When King David turned to God with all his heart, He began to bless and prosper Israel magnificently.

But what happened when “the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel” because they were disobeying? (2 Samuel 24:1). “So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, ‘It is enough; now restrain your hand’” (vv. 15–16). We, whatever our descent or ethnicity, are no better than those ancient Israelites.

The Old Testament Israelites, who accepted a relationship with Almighty God, promised to live by His word. They praised His name with their mouths and thought of themselves as God’s people. The great God of the universe, however, is not impressed with hypocrisy—mere words of loyalty and love—but requires us to back up our words with action, genuineness and honesty.

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.… For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:14–17, 26).

We must show ourselves as being fully faithful and engaged in our commitments to God. We must do, or at least make serious efforts to do, all that God requires of us in our family, sexual relations, business dealings and every other area of life. Why? Notice what God inspired to be written for our benefit: “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.… The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.… The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 22, 27–28). Disease epidemics are clearly a tool used by God to punish disobedient people.

Yes, God will do all these things to this world, including the modern descendants of Israel, unless we turn back to God in profound, heartfelt repentance in a way that few people have ever done.

Awesome times are bearing down on us. We are not talking about some little thing to be done off in a corner. We are talking about the most massive, event-by-event intervention by the Creator in the history of this earth. Nothing in the past can even remotely compare to this. Can you grasp the massive effect these events will have on your life, and on everything you have ever known?

Listen! God is trying to get your attention! These soon-coming events are real. They will happen. Do not just believe me. Believe what is written in your Bible. Check up and prove it. That is how you come to know God. You must know God to receive His protection in this coming time.

Remember, these coming events will not occur primarily somewhere off in Africa, Asia or remote from the Western nations. Disease epidemics will begin to strike America, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia in a worse way than they have ever done in our entire history.

5. THE RISE OF AN AGGRESSIVE, FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAMIC POWER

In the time of the end, the Bible predicts that there will arise, in North Africa or the Middle East, a charismatic personality who will be able to unify, harness and lead a powerful block of nations in which Egypt will have a key role.

“At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him [a power located north from the king of the South]; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through.… He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels [will be at his feet or footsteps]” (Daniel 11:40, 42–43).

This is a good example of why you need to watch the daily newspapers. Your newspaper reading will be very interesting if you understand Bible prophecy. You will begin to realize, from now on, what is the significance of the massive arms purchases by Middle Eastern countries from weapon-producing countries like North Korea, China, Russia and the U.S.

Presently, the whole Islamic world in the Middle East and North Africa is being enveloped by a wave of resurgent Islamic fundamentalism. Islamic fundamentalist insurgencies, funded by rogue states and terrorist organizations, are trying to destabilize the moderate, Western-leaning, secular regimes currently in power, and are seeking to replace them with a unified, resuscitated Islamic caliphate (empire)—the prophesied “king of the South.” The final leader over these reinvigorated Muslim nations will be a tremendously powerful religio-political false Messiah or “Mahdi” who will draw his power from a confederation of those nations. He will provoke the key events written in Daniel 11, which must occur before the return of Jesus Christ to this earth.

Mideast analyst Michael Slackman observed: “From Cairo, to Rabat, Morocco, to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the order that emerged after World War II—long accustomed to encouraging domestic anger against Israel—has seen its influence and grip on power challenged in the wave of instability washing across the Middle East. That has roughly coincided with the rise of the insurgency in Iraq. This region has long been defined by conflict, and leaders are unafraid to use force to crush opposition. But the current level of instability has unnerved them. They are not about to be toppled, not as long as they retain firm control over their security operations. But they find themselves fighting to maintain stability and credibility, political analysts said. ‘The ruling regimes cannot disregard or dismiss the influence of Islamist movements in their countries,’ said Gamal Abdel-Gawwad, who runs the International Relations unit at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. The empowerment of the Islamists has been propelled by events large and small—the occupation of Iraq, Israel’s war with Hezbollah, the United States’ support for Israel in that war, Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, and most recently comments about Islam made by Pope Benedict XVI” (“Islamists’ Rise Imperils Mideast’s Order,” New York Times, September 18, 2006).

Do you think that fanatical Muslims will not use nuclear or biological weapons if they have the opportunity? You had better believe they will. And Bible prophecy shows how it will all turn out. This great charismatic “Mahdi” (Messiah) will gather together the forces of Islam in a final jihad(holy war) against the morally corrupt nations of the West, whose religion, lifestyle and values represent a deadly challenge to the Islamic dream.

He will feel emboldened to provoke or attack the European Union (Daniel 11:40). This will anger the fierce “king of the North” and the forces of the king of the South will be completely crushed by this European power. The king of the North will then come down “like a whirlwind” (v. 40) and take over the Middle East, including the Holy Land (vv. 41–42). The king of the North’s armies will seize control of the region’s vast oil reserves (v. 43).

These soon-to-happen events will be awesome to witness. The “king of the North,” a future European Napoleon or Hitler type of powerful, dynamic leader, will react mightily with a blitzkrieg retaliation. This dramatic military response against the king of the South will set off a chain of other events.

“And they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation”(Daniel 11:31). As this dual prophecy shows, there will, at the end of this age, either be a temple or a special altar in Jerusalem. The priests of the family of Aaron will again offer the daily animal sacrifices prescribed in the Old Testament until a great military power comes in and places there what is called the abomination of desolation.

The description continues: “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time” (Daniel 12:1). This is talking about the American, British Commonwealth and Jewish peoples. The great Muslim “king of the South” will cause a war, and the European “king of the North” will conquer much of the Middle East. This king of the North also comes west against God’s people at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. This is the same time Jesus described in Matthew 24:21: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

We need to realize where all these things are leading, and how they will affect our lives—your life, your family, your children, your job and your future.

6. AN ASCENDANT EUROPEAN UNION SEEKS GLOBAL PRIMACY

Watch Europe! Revelation 13 describes the revival of a great military power. The symbolic language that the Apostle John used—about a fantastic beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns—depicts a recurring, evil political system which has greatly oppressed and heavily influenced the peoples in Western civilization, and through them, the entire world.

The seven heads represent seven distinct revivals of this evil empire over a long period of time. The ten horns represent the ten leaders (kings) of the constituent nations that will make up this ungodly federation that will, first of all, fight against God’s saints. “And it was granted to him [the leader of the ungodly empire] to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation” (Revelation 13:7). These ten leaders will also fight against Christ Himself at His return! “And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:12–14).
This final seventh revival will be similar in form to today’s European Union—ten different nations or groups of nations will be represented by ten different kings or presidents. These ten heads of state “receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast” (v. 12). In other words, they will rule for a very short time along with the final “Hitler.”

That is shocking! The Bible is discussing a wholly evil empire that is yet to arise—not some political power way back in history somewhere. Life in the future will not be “kinder and gentler.” This final
system is just ahead of us, and the men and women in this oppressive government will literally fight Jesus Christ at His coming!

Right now we are living in an unstable transition time in world history. Momentous changes are afoot in Europe. More than 40 years ago, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson remarked, “Europe has been at peace since 1945. But it is a restless peace that’s shadowed by the threat of violence.” Now, with the Cold War behind us, and the Berlin Wall a fading memory, Europe is proceeding toward a unification that would have seemed improbable to most on that day in March 1957 when France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux nations signed the Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Community.

Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, stated in the July/August 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs: “The goal of a Europe whole, free, and at peace is very close to completion. The United States welcomes a strong, united, and coherent Europe. There is no doubt that the European Union has been a superb anchor for the democratic evolution of eastern Europe after the Cold War.”

Yet a “strong, united and coherent” Europe represents an economic threat to the U.S. economy. As writer Carter Dougherty pointed out on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the European Central Bank, “Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome and Berlin were each, at some point, the political and economic capital of an empire, containing the power of New York and Washington combined. And they all surrendered a piece of their sovereignty to a common currency.… the euro is the currency of 15 countries and 320 million people, and as gilt-edged an investment as can be found in the current tumultuous global economy” (“An Impossible Dream, the Euro Finds Its Way,” New York Times, June 3, 2008).

One of the major characteristics of this European federated union, described in the Bible as “Babylon the Great,” is its enormously attractive economic prosperity and wealth. Material goods will abound for those who cooperate and submit to “Babylon.” The Bible says this about the coming, wicked federated union, “For all the nations have drunk the fatal wine of her intense immorality. The rulers of earth have enjoyed themselves with her, and businessmen throughout the world have grown rich from all her luxurious living” (Revelation 18:3, The Living Bible).

Humanity will become seduced by one of the oldest of false gods—the golden calf of materialism and pleasure. Revelation 18:12–13 gives a partial listing of the commodities being traded in “Babylon.” At the end of verse 13 it lists, “…and bodies and souls of men.” The original Greek text is talking about not only living human beings being sold as slaves but also the dead corpses of men.

In Hitler’s Third Reich, human bodies were sold. Dental gold was picked out of the mouths of gas chamber victims for remelting into ingots. Skin was used for lampshades. Hair was used to stuff pillows and make fabric. Could this happen again? Perhaps you did not grow up during World War II as I did. This is exactly what happened in what was supposed to be the most educated, cultured nation on earth—Germany! That was the nation with the greatest number of people with master’s and doctor’s degrees, proportionately, of any peoples on the earth.

Do not think these things cannot happen again! God says these things will happen. There will be a revival of an evil empire in the same spirit as the pagan Roman Empire. It will hate God’s people and His word.

As of mid-2008, there were 27 nations associated with the European Union. Yet Scripture describes “ten” nations or groups of nations as comprising the final “Beast” power. So we can expect old national boundaries to shift, or some current EU members to quit. Since EU law requires all 27 nations to ratify certain important policy documents that would shift greater control away from individual nations and toward EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, the resistance of several key states has so far posed a problem for the most vigorous advocates of European unity. France, Great Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands have all at one time or another failed to ratify key EU unification proposals. This has led some EU advocates to call for a “two speed” Europe, with Germany and other key nations forming an “inner core” of EU members, with closer economic, military and political cooperation than other EU nations that retain misgivings.

We do need to understand the momentous times in which we live. A new world order is in the process of emerging. Will the present European Union transform itself into “Babylon the Great”? Watch! The Bible’s prophecies will be fulfilled before Christ returns—that is the whole point.

A crucial element that will be essential to the creation of “Babylon the Great” is yet missing from the picture. All of the awesome empires of the past were led by charismatic, dynamic leaders, such as Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Charlemagne, Justinian, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and Nebuchadnezzar.

The Bible does give us some information about this coming “great” leader who will assume political and military control of “Babylon the Great.” Notice the time setting of this prophecy: “And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purge them, and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time”(Daniel 11:35). The context of this prophecy is the end-time. Also, it is important to point out that the nature of many prophecies is dual. That is to say, there was one preliminary fulfillment of a prophecy in antiquity, and there is to be a yet future fulfillment of that scripture.

We learn in Daniel 11 that a powerful leader is yet to come on the world scene. This “king,” who will rise up in Europe, “shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god; shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods…” (Daniel 11:36).

Some Bible students assume this is talking about the great, end-time false prophet, who will be contemporaneous with the rising political-military leader. But there are to be two different individuals involved. Verse 36 is about the secular-power leader—the coming dictator—who will be a charming flatterer, cunning, egotistical and ruthless. This leader is destined to exalt himself above any other religious entity. He will be “full of himself.” “Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done” (Daniel 11:36).

God uses vicious leaders like the coming “king of the North” to punish His hypocritical people, who say they worship Him and print His name on their money (the Americans), but do not do the things He
commands. This future “Hitler” will execute God’s wrath, especially upon the peoples of America and the British countries, because as nations they have rejected God’s values and chosen sinful pleasures and conveniences.

“And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel [whose descendants are now living in the U.S.A. and the British countries and other places]: ‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end has come upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will repay you for all your abominations. My eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity; but I will repay your ways, and your abominations shall be in your midst; then you shall know that I am the Lord!’

“Thus says the Lord God: ‘A disaster, a singular disaster; behold, it has come! An end has come, the end has come; it has dawned for you; behold, it has come! Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; the time has come, a day of trouble is near, and not of rejoicing in the mountains. Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury, and spend My anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will repay you for all your abominations. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord who strikes’” (Ezekiel 7:2–9).

This coming king of the North “shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above them all” (Daniel 11:37). This despicable political leader will cooperate with a false church system for a time, but he is not attracted to its religious teachings personally, and only wishes to use it to achieve power. He sees himself above it. In his enormous ego he tries to make a god out of himself.

“But in their place,” this coming Hitler type will “honor a god of fortresses,” or a god of munitions, as some translations have it; “and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things” (v. 38). This powerful individual will dedicate tremendous amounts of international resources to building up his military machine. And he will worship his power and that military machine. “He shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall make more wealthy, and shall appoint them as rulers over many, and shall distribute the land for a price” (Daniel 11:39, NRSV).

Here is this awesome power of a coming “Hitler,” and, as we explained, there will be exactly ten nations or groups of nations eventually in Europe having ten kings or rulers over them. They will give their power and strength to this coming dictator, this “Hitler,” for a short time just before Christ’s return. And as verse 40 shows, this European power-bloc will also fight against the Islamic power block to the south.

7. A POWERFUL RELIGIOUS FIGURE LEADS A RELIGIOUS REVIVAL

One of the definite “signs of the end-times,” which will herald the close of this present evil age, is the arrival on the scene of a great false religious leader, called in the Bible the “false prophet” (Revelation 19:19–21). This religious leader will possess great charisma, and will exercise a very powerful influence over a political power—the soon-coming “Beast” (Revelation 13, 17, 19). He will be the long-prophesied, influential head of a great, militant church in Europe. Together, this combination of personal charisma and awesome power to influence others, will have an enormous effect on the future of the nations of the Western world.

This coming false religious leader—a leader who is prophesied to sit astride the end-time “Beast” (the revival of a governmental system having characteristics similar to the old Holy Roman Empire, which was a combination of church and state) is described in Isaiah 47. “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon” (v. 1). Notice this is a daughter of ancient Babylon. A modern sort of Babylon is to rise up! “Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate” (ibid.)

Who, then, is this “lady” mentioned in Isaiah 47? Scripture gives us a clear answer. “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms” (v. 5). This woman is called the “Lady of Kingdoms” because she has a fornicating political relationship with, and actually rules over, quite a number of different kingdoms or governments of this world.

Now, read on in this important end-time prophecy. God says, “I was angry with My people” (v. 6). Who are God’s people? There are two ways this can be properly understood: one is the Church of God, the other is God’s physical people, Israel—“You [Israel] only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). This prophecy is definitely speaking nationally, so this is not talking about God’s true Church. Clearly, this is speaking about the end-time nations that comprise modern Israel.

So God says, “I have profaned My inheritance, and given them into your [the Babylonish system’s] hand. You showed them no mercy; on the elderly [‘ancient’ people, Israel—KJV] you laid your yoke very heavily” (Isaiah 47:6).

Notice the word “yoke.” This is a yoke of slavery laid upon us by the daughter of the ancient Babylon. “And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ so that you did not take these things to heart, nor remember the latter end of them” (v. 7). And so this modern “lady,” this false religious system, will put a yoke on God’s birthright people—those who have received their tremendous national inheritances from God Almighty.

God speaks of this woman as being a “Lady of Kingdoms,” putting a “yoke” on the neck of God’s chosen people, Israel, and says this Babylonish “lady” will not think she is doing any terrible thing when she afflicts God’s people. Then He says: “Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children’” (v. 8). “But,” God says, “these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood” (v. 9).

That is what God says! But where is this explained in the Bible? How can we know that this is an end-time prophecy?

Turn back again to the book of Revelation, where He is talking about this same system. God says, “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury” (Revelation 18:3). A great religio-political trading system!

Well, what is that trading system? Verse 2 says, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit.” Yes, this modern Babylon, which is now in the process of forming in Europe, will be a very sophisticated, wealthy system that will soon dominate most of Europe. Yet it will be heavily influenced by Satan!

Notice God’s warning to His people: “Come out of her, my people”(Revelation 18:4). Dwelling in this Babylonish system will be some of God’s people (this applies both physically and spiritually)—and they are commanded: “Come out… lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (vv. 4–5). And so this Babylonish system and the people in it will be warned!

Now notice verse 7: “In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she[this modern Babylon] says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’” Do you remember those words? That is quoting directly from Isaiah 47. Yet modern Babylon will say those words!

“Therefore,” God says, “her plagues will come in one day [just like God said back in Isaiah 47:9]—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her” (Revelation 18:8).

But first, the modern descendants of ancient Israel will be brought down and punished by God through this system. These people will be punished as no peoples have ever been punished in modern history, because of their flagrant disobedience, and their going after every ungodly abomination.

A GREAT FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADER

The great false religious leader will rise up very soon now—in our very day! He will deceive not a few hundred people—like David Koresh and his Branch Davidians—but hundreds of millions! Yes, prophecy indicates that hundreds of millions of people will be deceived! That is exactly what will occur before Christ’s coming.

The Apostle Paul, in a letter concerning the Second Coming of Christ, wrote: “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him…” (2 Thessalonians 2:1). He then cautioned God’s people “not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come” (v. 2). Some were even writing letters purporting to be from Paul. “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition [or son of destruction]” (v. 3).

Clearly, a great false religious leader will rise up before Christ returns to this earth. What will be the attitude and modus operandi of this great false prophet? “Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (v. 4).

This man will have supernatural power to deceive! He will have the ability to perform great miracles such as causing fire to come down out of the sky (Revelation 13:13–14). Will you follow such a man? Or, will you now begin to study and understand your Bible so you will know what is ahead? “And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs [miracles] which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword” (v. 14).

This great false religious leader will have tremendous impact on the Western world—make no mistake about it! You need to watch for these things so that you will not be misled or deceived by him (the soon-coming great “false prophet”) or by any man! “Take heed that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4)! Keep alert! Keep your eyes open! Be on the lookout for a great, charismatic false religious leader—a “false prophet”! He, like the early New Testament false prophet, Simon Magus (Acts 8:9–11), will deceive hundreds of millions into thinking he is a great servant of God.

If you know God’s word—and obey it—you will not be one of those many millions who will be deceived by the soon-coming, great “false prophet”!

8. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD PREACHED TO ALL NATIONS

The great “Olivet prophecy” of Jesus Christ is pivotal in understanding future events. In Matthew 24:3, Jesus was asked by the disciples, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” As we have seen, Jesus first warned them about false prophets, wars and rumors of wars leading to world war, famines, disease epidemics and earthquakes, and said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (v. 8).

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation” (v. 9). The coming Great Tribulation will affect the Church as well as national Israel. “And [they will] kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” This verse is quite significant because it says, in effect, that God’s true Church and Work will be known by all nations. People will not hate it unless they know about it, will they? They will hate the true Work of God because they will hate its message.

“But he who endures to the end, shall be saved” (v. 13). The end of what? Well, certainly the end of our physical lives individually, but this also applies to those alive at the end of this age. By this statement, Jesus intended to signify the end of 6,000 years of human experience and sin under the influence of Satan the Devil, which is heralded by the Second Coming of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.

In verse 14, Jesus mentions another sign that must happen before His Second Coming—and is happening right now. “And this gospel of the kingdom”—the Good News of the coming Kingdom or world-ruling government of God, based on God’s laws—“will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations.” This Gospel is good news, but it contains a warning. Every nation on earth, not just a few, will hear about this as a “witness,” not to convert them, but as a testimony of God’s future intentions.

This is not the time when God is trying to convert everyone, as many ministers, who are trying to “save” the world now, would have you believe! God is not going around like a lonely hound dog, wagging his tail and hoping someone will pay attention to him. Through his sins, man has cut himself off from God (Isaiah 59:1–2). Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). This is the only way one can come to God. God’s Church is proclaiming the Gospel, witnessing to humanity so that those who are willing can seek Him. Whoever has their mind opened by God can understand. You are reading part of God’s “witness” right now!

9. FAITH AGAIN BECOMES A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH

Watch for persecution of Christians and the Church of God that keeps the Commandments of God (Revelation 12:17; 14:12). Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you up to… kill you” (Matthew 24:9). Here He is speaking to His people, His genuine disciples. The Apostle John gave the Church (and anyone who reads the Bible) a test that can be used to determine who is a bona fide Christian and who only masquerades as one. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3–4).

It is these commandment-keeping Christians who will be persecuted. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). Jesus clearly foresaw that the world would be full of religious confusion during the end-time. “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). Only the few seem to understand; only those called by God. What is the result of this spiritual blindness and confusion? “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (v. 12). So, at the end, there will be widespread chaos and lawlessness—and God says much of it can be traced back to false teachings and religious confusion from a “Babylon” of religions and denominations.

God’s people will be persecuted at the time of the end, just as the early Christians faced vicious attacks. “If the world hates you,” Jesus told the disciples—and this certainly applies to us, His disciples today—“you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18–19).

This present society around us will become increasingly hostile to God’s people and the moral standards they live by! The political, business, media, cultural and religious elites will feel condemned by the true Church of God, which will not compromise regarding God’s word. God’s Church will be politically incorrect. This world will feel guilty.

How about you? If Scripture reveals to you some Truth that may be inconvenient, embarrassing, or personally or financially costly—what would your reaction be? Will you become angry at God because He is meddling? God says He has a right to tell you what is right or wrong in the most sensitive areas of your life. Some people will even start spitting in hatred at the mere thought that Someone else seeks to impose His values on them! And they will not like it. All animals and human beings blink when suddenly exposed to light when they have been in darkness. They do not like that bright light. So it is with the light of the Truth.

“Remember,” Jesus said, “the word that I said to you. ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20). Did the religious and political authorities of Jesus’ time keep His word? No, they did not. They crucified Him instead. But Jesus continued, “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me” (v. 21).

10. A CRISIS STRIKES JERUSALEM

Watch! The modern nation of “Israel,” populated by the descendants of the biblical tribe of Judah (plus significant remnants of Levi and Benjamin) will suffer serious military losses with part of its territory occupied by enemies just before the Second Coming of Christ. This is of utmost significance! Many students of Bible prophecy declare that 1948 saw the great regathering of Israel in the Holy Land and the final establishment of the nation of Israel. That is absolutely wrong! This was just a precursor, a small forerunner of the gigantic regathering of the remnants of all twelve tribes of Israel that is yet to occur. Meanwhile, the hard-pressed Jewish people in Israel will be attacked and defeated once again. This is difficult to say, but the Bible makes that very, very clear.

“Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city” (Zechariah 14:1–2).

“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land. They have cast lots for My people, have given a boy in exchange [as payment] for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink” (Joel 3:1–3).

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near” (Luke 21:20). Jerusalem has been partially surrounded by armies in recent years, but we will see Jerusalem completely surrounded by armies. Notice this prophecy: “Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains” (v. 21). Those who trust in God, those who believe in Christ, those who are true Christians will understand what to do when these things occur because they will have been studying these various signs as Jesus said. They will have been watching and praying. They will flee to the mountains. “Let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance” (vv. 21–22).

So in the future, Jerusalem, the political and emotional capital of Israel, will be overrun by her enemies, until Christ returns and fights the aggressor nations (Zechariah 14:3). Once again the city of prophets, kings and the Messiah will be brought down and punished horribly. This major event in the prophetic end-time scenario will witness further outrage.

11. THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

When the city of Jerusalem is attacked and conquered, the foreign occupying power will begin what the Bible calls the “abomination of desolation.” What is that? Jesus Christ describes this abomination of desolation in Matthew 24:15–20. Start with verse 15: “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation’ [a loathsome contamination], spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place… then let those who are in Judea [today known as the modern state of Israel] flee to the mountains.” The people in Judea are instructed, when they see this terrible abomination of desolation, to flee to the mountains.

Prophecy foretells that Jerusalem is again to be surrounded by armies (Zechariah 12:2), and an idol will be set up in a holy place. Jesus warns those who are faithful to escape quickly when this desecration takes place. “Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes” (Matthew 24:17–18). In other words, you are to get out immediately when you see this happening, because if you wait, it will be too late to escape safely. “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those with nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath [God’s people will be keeping the Sabbath]” (vv. 19–20).

There is a historical parallel to this end-time overthrow of Jerusalem and the erection of an idolatrous object on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, some 160 years before the First Coming of Christ, the pagan Seleucid Greeks sacrificed pigs as offerings upon the altar of God. A statue of Zeus, the chief Greek god, was set up. Something similar will occur once again. We are living during a time that is like the calm before a menacing, destructive storm. If you had been a Jew in Germany in 1935, would you have been alert to your people’s future destiny? Would you have taken appropriate action to save the lives of your family members? You need to be paying attention to what is happening in world events! The cost of ignorance, laxness or a dilatory attitude will be extremely high.

Remarkably, an important implication of Matthew 24:15 is that there will once again be animal sacrifices on an altar at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount dedicated to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel! Another scripture confirming this states: “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up…” (Daniel 12:11).

Since there is prophesied to be a place of sacrifice, many wonder if there will be a great temple raised up in Jerusalem. An alternative idea would be that there will be merely an altar set up, as happened when the Jews returned from their captivity in Babylon (Ezra 3:2). Watch for this in your world news. Prophecy clearly shows that the Jews will once again be sacrificing at Jerusalem. Whether in a temple or at a simple altar is not yet clear. The Jewish people—remember the Six Day War—move swiftly and courageously when they are urgent about something.

From the time that the daily sacrifices to God are stopped by a foreign aggressor (possibly by the coming “king of the North”) and the abomination of desolation is set up—“there shall be 1290 days” (Daniel 12:11). This scripture discusses a certain period of time after the abomination of desolation until the end of this present civilization when Christ returns to this earth as King of kings to usher in a genuinely new world order, the Kingdom of God.

“Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the 1335 days. But you,” God told Daniel to “go your way, till the end; for you shall rest” (Daniel 12:12–13). In other words, Daniel would not himself see the fulfillment of the prophecies God inspired through him. Daniel was to live out his days and die, never having understood the prophecy he was inspired to write down. But today, we can read Daniel’s words and understand, if we begin to walk with God and study these things thoroughly. We need to realize that we are living in momentous times when all these things are about to occur. Let that motivate us to really study the Bible. And most importantly of all, let us obey our God in all things!

12. THE COLLAPSE OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS—THE GREAT TRIBULATION

Before the glorious Second Coming of Jesus Christ to establish His Kingdom, watch for the decline and eventual conquest of the English-speaking nations by their enemies! The biblical terminology for this event is “The Great Tribulation.”

Your Bible reveals that the worst, most indescribably terrifying time in the entire history of this planet is soon to occur. This terrifying time (the Great Tribulation) is also spoken of as the time of “Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). It will be such an awful time that the destruction and genocide of World War II will seem like a picnic in comparison!

Let us, therefore, examine the scriptures dealing with this dramatic alteration in the world’s power structure—which, like a powerful steel trap, will suddenly spring upon an unsuspecting world! Most of us will live to see these cataclysmic times, whether we realize it or not. “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people” (Luke 21:23). When you really understand this prophecy, you can see that Jesus was speaking nationally of not only the Jews, but also of the other modern-day descendants of the ancient nation of Israel—among whom are the American and British-descended peoples.

Notice this same prophecy in a parallel account in Matthew: “For then will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved [alive]; but for the elect’s sake [for the sake of God’s people] those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21–22).

In the past, it was not possible to exterminate all human life from this earth. You might have had a devastating war in Europe, or in the Middle East, but you would still have millions of people untouched elsewhere in the world in Africa, Asia or Australia, or in North and South America. But Jesus prophesied of a unique time in the history of humanity. No nation can feel secure from the utter annihilation that is now possible by thermonuclear warfare!

In the 1950s, it finally became possible to blast all human life off this planet. During the last half-century, we have now multiplied our ability to assure our destruction many times over. Scientists tell us today that we now can erase all human life from this earth at least 20 times over! Christ is describing our time today! No Roman army of Jesus’ day could ever boast of such murderous power.

Here is what the prophet Jeremiah said about this same time: “Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel [whose modern descendants include the United States, Great Britain and other nations of northwestern Europe] and Judah.… ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale? Alas! For that day is great [Jeremiah prophesied under inspiration] so that none is like it’” (Jeremiah 30:4–7). There has never been a time of trouble in human history like this one. Whose time of trouble does this terrible tribulation pertain to? It is the time of “Jacob’s trouble” (v. 7).

It will be a time of trouble so great that none is like it. There cannot be two times of trouble like this. This is the same time of trouble described in Matthew 24:21, the same time described in Mark 13 and Luke 21, the same time of trouble described back in Ezekiel 36 and Daniel 12 and elsewhere as the “Great Tribulation.” It is the time of God’s intervention to chastise His chosen people. Nevertheless, speaking of that woeful time of trouble, God says: “I will not make a complete end of you” (Jeremiah 30:11). So he will not utterly destroy us, but He will punish us severely—to shake us to the roots of our very being in order to wake us up. He will correct and humble His people in order to wake them up before it is too late!

This unprecedented time of trouble will be directed primarily against the American and British-descended Commonwealth peoples, though the other modern-day descendants of Israel will also have troubles. But why against these nations? Because the American and British-descended peoples have been recipients of God’s tremendous birthright promises as the descendants of the patriarch Joseph (Genesis 49:22–26). For more information, please request our booklet on this subject, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy. In God’s eyes, blessings also impart responsibilities. We are not a favorite or pet people, but we have been chosen by God for a very special purpose. Regrettably, we have failed to fulfill that purpose. Let us understand why and what will happen.

“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30)! May God Almighty speed that great day!

The Americans and British-descended Commonwealth peoples have been materially blessed above all nations on the earth for the last 200 years. Beginning a little more than 200 years ago, the English-speaking peoples wielded power that thwarted the belligerent, aggressive nations—the Central Powers in World War I and the Axis Powers in World War II. Twice in the 20th century, the English-speaking peoples have restored a warring world to a measure of peace and security. Yet in spite of that, most Americans and Britons, individually, have turned away from the true God. At most, they continue to praise the Lord hypocritically. “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines’” (Mark 7:6–7,NRSV).

There are numerous end-time prophecies that reveal to the American and British-descended peoples exactly what God Almighty says will happen to them—if they do not turn from their present wayward course of disobedience to Him and His commandments.

THE PIVOTAL OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY

The pivotal scripture for understanding end-time prophecy is found in the Old Testament, in chapter 26 of the book of Leviticus. When we rightly understand our national identity, this prophetic chapter takes on new, urgent meaning. Here is basic, foundational information for modern Israel—among whom are to be counted the American people, and British-descended peoples of the Commonwealth nations. Those peoples are among the descendants of the so-called “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” This prophecy is talking about ancient Israel, and it is also speaking of their children and grandchildren at the end of this age!

We should watch for the fulfillment of those prophecies that foretell the downfall of the United States and Great Britain, insofar as their national prestige and power are concerned, even before their cities are totally demolished in a future round of world war—World War III—which will be the most deadly time humanity will ever experience.

Speaking of the coming end-time Great Tribulation, God says: “If you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you” (Leviticus 26:14–17). God Almighty says He will bring us down very low. If we continue transgressing His commandments, He will discipline us in more ways than we can begin to imagine. He goes on to say: “And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more [or “sevenfold more” as many versions render it] for your sins. I will break the pride of your power” (vv. 18–19).

Our competitors for global power and influence are looking down on us with increasing glee as we stumble in resolving domestic and international problems. These things are happening to us because we have turned aside from God. We have not obeyed the God of our fathers.

In Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are powerful prophetic warnings for us today, because God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). God promised that if we would obey Him, He would set us “high above all nations of the earth” (Deuteronomy 28:1). However, if we do not obey God and keep His commandments: “Cursed shall you be in the city” (v. 16). Are we cursed in our cities? Think about it. Millions of Americans are afraid to go out of their own homes at night. Elderly people and women and others all over this land are afraid to venture out in the evening—in this “land of the free, and the home of the brave.” We are locked in our homes like prisoners! No, we are not blessed in our towns and cities.

Further, our disobedience would bring upon us curses in our food supply, curses in sexual relations and curses in whatever policies or programs that we nationally attempt because we have turned aside from the Great God.

The growing effect of our national sins includes escalating crime, violence, marital infidelities, sexual perversions of all sorts, lying, cheating, stealing and every foul thing imaginable that is disgusting in the sight of a just and holy God. The selfishness and decadence of our “modern lifestyle”—which is based on egotistical pride and vanity—are gnawing like voracious termites at the structural frame that holds in place the edifice of our national greatness. How long before our house collapses? Look around you and consider.

In spite of our great material blessings, the American and British-descended peoples have turned away from God. These once-great nations have plummeted in their moral standards and become nations of perverts, liars, thieves and murderers. And God will chastise these nations for their own good, as He rebukes and chastens every son He loves (Hebrews 12:6).

God says: “Therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness” (Deuteronomy 28:48). In other words, these English-speaking nations (including the Jews and others residing in them) will be taken into a terrible captivity. God says we will be “in need of all things; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you” (same verse). Is that plain enough? God will take us into national slavery. The Holocaust of World War II will seem mild in comparison. The English-speaking peoples will not all die, but they will no longer exist as nations, not as the United States of America and the British-descended nations of the Commonwealth, after an awful punishment from God Himself: “‘The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a grim-faced nation sho wing no respect to the old or favor to the young” (Deuteronomy 28:49–50, NRSV). This aggressor will not be Mexico or some other nation nearby, but one from “afar”—from the end of the earth—from way over in Europe. This enemy will be “as swift as the eagle flies.” It is interesting that three major nations on earth use an eagle as their symbol. One is the United States, another is Russia and the third is Germany. This aggressor will be “a nation whose language you will not understand” (v. 49), “a nation of fierce countenance” (v. 50)—meaning a very warlike nation.

God reveals that the American and British-descended peoples will be besieged in their own gates (v. 52), and will be so desperately hungry that they will resort to horrific measures in the times to come—even turning to hideous cannibalism (v. 53).

Finally, these peoples will be taken into slavery by a coming great power that is now beginning to rise up in Europe!

GOD PROMISES TO DELIVER HIS PEOPLE!

God says He will humble us and correct us, but He also promises to deliver us from all our troubles—when we truly learn our lesson and turn from our many abominations!

“And at that time your people [all the descendants of the patriarch Israel]shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:1–2).

The time setting is unmistakable. Daniel is talking about the resurrection to immortality of the saints of God, which shall occur at the seventh or “last trump” when Jesus returns to this earth with all His mighty angels, to establish the Kingdom of God to rule for 1,000 years (1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4; Revelation 20:4). Daniel is not writing of something that happened way back in the Middle Ages. This prophecy concerning the Great Tribulation period leads right up to the glorious Second Coming of Jesus Christ at the very end of this present evil world (Matthew 24:21–30).

As the foregoing prophecy reveals, God Almighty Himself will order one of His mighty angels, Michael, to stand “watch over” the people of Israel, who at that time will have had their power broken, and will have been scattered into many nations as captive slaves.

God’s miraculous deliverance of His people is clearly revealed: “‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord, ‘nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid. For I am with you… to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished’” (Jeremiah 30:10–11).

God goes on to explain how He will greatly bless His people, once they have truly learned their lesson: “Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry; I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small” (v. 19).

What will be the final state of the peoples of Israel, after God delivers them from their captivity at the hands of a cruel oppressor?

“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off [includes the British peoples], and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’ For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the Lord—for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all.

“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together; for I will turn their mourning to joy, will comfort them, and make them rejoice rather than sorrow. I will satiate the soul of the priests [God’s servants] with abundance, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:10–14).

However, the bad news prophesied in Scripture—of a terrifying time of trouble that will soon spring upon an unsuspecting, heedless world—must come first! What a tragedy that we will not hear and return to our God! That time will be the worst time of trouble this earth will ever experience (Matthew 24:21; Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:l)!

But the ultimate in good news is that Scripture also predicts the imminent return of Jesus Christ to this earth. He will deliver the modern-day descendants of Israel (of whom the nations of northwestern Europe, and also the Jewish people, are part) from a horrible time of captivity and trouble. God says He will sweep aside all human governments (Revelation 11:15–18; 19:11–21). Christ will then banish Satan, so that he will no longer be able to mislead the nations (Revelation 20:1–3), and after removing Satan from power over the nations, the Great God will establish the Kingdom of God upon this sin-cursed, war-torn earth (Isaiah 11:1–9; Revelation 20:4).

The prophet Daniel also wrote the good news of the establishment of the glorious Kingdom of God: “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44).

Furthermore, Daniel says: “Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (Daniel 7:27).

Finally, the nations shall have passed through the Great Tribulation, and will have arrived at the time the prophets foretold—the establishment of the Kingdom of God to rule all nations—bringing peace, prosperity, health and happiness to all nations!

13. HEAVENLY SIGNS AND THE DAY OF THE LORD

Next—after the Great Tribulation—there are to be dramatic astronomical signs in the heavens visible to everyone on earth. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29).

God really will intervene in human affairs! And He will even intervene with nature and show this generation that there is a real God. Even after the modern nations of Israel go into captivity, God will not be through yet. Though our nations have professed to being “Christian,” they are in fact filled with deceit, vanity, avarice and violence.

Notice: “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind” (Revelation 6:12–13).

Here are incredible parts of a crescendo leading up to Christ’s return. Almost like a vast fireworks display in the evening sky, we will literally see the transition from the Great Tribulation to intensified punishments directly from God on any who are still unrepentant in defiant rebellion against their Creator. Notice verse 17: “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

The six seals outlined here describe the same events that Jesus had told His disciples would occur at the end. As the seals are opened we first find false prophets; second, wars; third, famines; fourth, disease epidemics; fifth, a Great Tribulation (including the martyrdom of the saints). The sixth seal is the heavenly signs. In Joel 2, we also see that the heavenly signs occur before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” (v. 31). We already saw in Matthew 24 that the heavenly signs come after the Great Tribulation. What yet remains before the Kingdom of God can be fully established?

14. THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES

What will happen after the first six seals of Revelation 6 are opened? “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17).

Revelation 7 then describes the protection of the 144,000 and
the great multitude, Revelation 8 describes the opening of the seventh seal—God’s direct punishment on a rebellious world. This consists of the seven trumpet plagues described in chapters 8 and 9 of
Revelation.

Finally, in Revelation 11:15, the Seventh Trumpet—the famous “Last Trumpet”—is sounded. Christ returns in power and glory. But even as He returns, the deceived nations of mankind will fight and curse Him who is their very Creator! (Revelation 16:21; 17:14).

So, as He comes, Christ pours out the awesome seven last plagues described in Revelation 15:1 and 16:1–21. Study these passages. These plagues will be indescribably horrible!

But even here, God—who rebukes and chastens every son He loves (Hebrews 12:5–6)—is doing this to bring men and nations to their senses! As you read the passages in Revelation, you see that every mountain and every island on earth will be shaken. There will be virtually nothing left of their former world for hard-headed, vile, rebellious men to hang on to. Everything around them will be removed or destroyed. Proud men will come to realize that they are nothing compared with the Creator God of the universe.

Hundreds of millions of men and women will finally acknowledge, as did Job: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5–6). In a way they have never done before, human beings will truly repent and be willing to listen to the Truth—to listen to God’s true ministers and teachers and obey their Maker.

Then they will truly understand these statements of God in Isaiah: “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made” (Isaiah 57:15–16).

Finally, then, humanity as a whole will have been made humble and teachable. It will yield to the Living Christ and the resurrected saints who will join Him in ruling this entire earth in Tomorrow’s World. This world government established by Christ will be known as the Kingdom of God and it will be the active, hands-on, governing leadership of God on this earth!

WHAT LIES JUST AHEAD?

So, what will happen? Unless we, as nations, fully repent of transgressing God’s laws, the future of America and the British-descended Commonwealth countries looks grim indeed. For every great nation and empire in history that has descended into the depths of immorality, like we are now experiencing, has come to an end.

Will America’s or Britain’s preachers wake up and begin to preach obedience to the laws of God? Will our political leaders turn to their Creator in true godly fear, making God and His ways a vital part of our national life? Will the educators, the psychologists and sociologists begin to build their concepts on the foundations of Scripture? What do you think?

The answer seems obvious. We, along with most of our fellow English-speaking nations around the world, are in for a time of national calamity—actually, national punishment—unprecedented in the annals of modern human history. Month by month, year by year, more and more things will somehow go wrong for us. Our national debt will increase. Our immorality and crime rate will increase. Our cities will become even less safe, increasingly being racked by lawless hoodlums, gang war fareand race riots—and finally food riots, because of the impending drought and famine prophesied to strike our nations.

Describing this very situation that will occur in the “latter days,” God states: “And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them” (Deuteronomy 4:27–31).

Yes, if we do not heed—nationally or individually—the warning going out now and over the months and years just ahead, we will have to absorb the full brunt of God’s corrective punishment.

At the same time, you can be certain there will be other voices of lying deception saying not to worry, everything will be fine. “‘For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with Me,’ says the Lord.… and said, ‘It is not He’” (Jeremiah 5:11–12).

In other words, people will say “these prophecies are not real, God is not speaking; this is just some doom and gloom preacher talking nonsense.” The skeptics will say, “Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine” (v. 12). Yes, even false ministers will speak evil of God’s true ministry. “And the prophets become wind, for the word is not in them.” In modern jargon, they are saying that God’s servants are a bunch of “windbags” to whom they should not pay attention, “for the word [of God] is not in them” (v. 13).

God clearly forewarned us that there will be cynics and doubters who will contradict and ridicule God’s warning through His true servants: “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle… that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets… knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:1–4).

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Now, you should realize that our nations are in mortal peril. Everything you have ever known will be changed over the next decade or two. Your future, and the future of your children and grandchildren, is really at stake.

There is a real God in charge. He rules over men, and over the nations of men, perhaps more directly and more profoundly than many of you have realized. Turn to Daniel 4:25 where Daniel, talking to King Nebuchadnezzar, said: “They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.” God speaking through Daniel said, “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men.” God gives office and authority to those whom He chooses. “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings” (Daniel 2:20–21). God is in charge of governments and He often determines the outcome of elections and the rise of literal kings, monarchs and dictators in the nations throughout this earth.

We need to have faith in God’s power. The Eternal God is the true God who rules over all, and He does intervene in this world’s rotten, misguided society in order to accomplish His purpose.

So, notice what God says about these societies and about your near future: “But take heed to yourselves,” Jesus said, “lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing” (Luke 21:34). Perhaps you might say, “Well, there are a few years yet to go.” Yes, there are a few—maybe very few. But do not let your heart be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the cares of this life and that day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come “as a snare”—like a deadly trap that catches an animal before it realizes what hit it. Do not let that happen to you. Christ is coming and His coming will be “as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth” (v. 35) who are unprepared or deceived.

Even if our nations as a whole will not repent, you can certainly change—and you can be forgiven and protected during the coming Great Tribulation. Jesus Himself gave this assurance. Write to the regional office nearest you to request our free booklet, Restoring Original Christianity. You can also read it online or order a copy at our Web site, www.tomorrowsworld.org. This informative booklet will tell you in much greater detail what you should do.

Jesus commands us to “watch.” Prove the things in this booklet from the very word of God. Look these things up so you will understand. Let the Bible talk to you. Those who trust in God—those who believe in Christ, those who are bona fide Christians—will understand when these things occur, because they will have been studying these many signs as Jesus said.

So, we are to watch these events, praying that God would help us surrender our lives to Him and His Son Jesus Christ, and that we will accept Him as our Savior and our Boss, our Lord, our Master, our High Priest and our coming King. Then, through His Spirit within us, we must keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:22). Thus, we can begin to walk with the God who gives us life and breath and truly prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Personally, you can awaken yourself to an intense awareness of what is happening. You can begin to diligently study the Bible and see what it really says. Cry out to God in earnest prayer! Ask Him for guidance and strength to do what is right! Seek Him for deliverance for you and your family in the turbulent years ahead! Then you can turn to Him with all your heart and start obeying His laws. You can accept the true Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and surrender to let Him live His life in you.

As you sincerely seek God and believe in the true Gospel—which Jesus Christ Himself taught—you will learn what the Lord requires of you. Do it and He will enrich your life with understanding and purpose. He will grant you the gift of eternal life in His soon-coming Kingdom (John 3:16;Romans 6:23). And He will deliver you from the coming worldwide catastrophe Jesus so vividly predicted.

As Jesus Christ Himself instructed: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36)!

Booklet Category

Prophecy

The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality?

4uwzvo — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 22:05:13 +0000

The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality? 4uwzvo Mon, 02/28/2022 - 22:05

The Beast of Revelation: Myth, Metaphor or Soon-Coming Reality?

John H. Ogwyn (1949-2005)

Booklet Media

#Beast of Revelation

#Prophecy

How will global religio-political developments affect you and your family? Will a world dictator soon appear? Just who or what is the Beast, and will you receive its infamous mark? Read on for the startling answers!

Introduction

Today’s newspapers record a state of affairs that would have been absolutely unthinkable to an observer in 1945, at the end of World War II. Then, the Rome-Berlin Axis lay smashed, and American and British forces stood at the pinnacle of victory. Today Britain has been shorn of her empire and America is morally and culturally bankrupt. Europe is busily uniting under the aegis of a powerful German-dominated European Union.

In the decades following World War II, America and Britain invested billions of dollars in intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Yet the most astounding geopolitical events of the post-World War II era—resulting in the collapse of the “Iron Curtain” and the emergence of a powerful reunified Germany—caught these governments completely by surprise.

The rapid unfolding of events in eastern and central Europe in 1989 did not catch everyone by surprise, however. As an editorial writer in the Hendersonville, Tennessee, Free Press on December 7, 1989, stated:

“Like a great many Americans I have been watching the current political situation in East Germany with interest. While many have expressed surprise at the recent events and at East German cries for reunification of East and West Germany, I have to admit I haven’t been too surprised by these events. The reason I haven’t been particularly surprised is that for years I have occasionally read the publications of… the late Herbert W. Armstrong… Armstrong predicted that the Berlin Wall would some day come down and the two German states would once again reunite into a powerful nation.”

As far back as the April 1952 Good News, Herbert W. Armstrong had written that East Germany would be returned to West Germany and that Russia “will be forced to relinquish her control over Hungary, Czechoslovakia and parts of Austria” (p. 16). In 1956, following Russia’s invasion of Hungary, when it seemed that the “Iron Curtain” had inexorably fallen on the nations of eastern Europe, Mr. Armstrong wrote: “The way is being prepared for a colossal third force in world politics—a European Federation of Nations more powerful than either Russia or the United States!… We have shown years in advance what would happen to Russia’s ill-fated Empire in Eastern Europe” (Plain Truth, December 1956, p. 3).

How could he possibly have known? In this booklet you will find out!

Not since the days of the Tower of Babel have humanity’s efforts been more intertwined and interconnected. Today we commonly talk of how the world has been transformed into a “global village.” Jet planes, instantaneous telecommunication and integrated world economies have changed our world.

From finance to manufacturing, multinational corporations and conglomerates now dominate virtually every field. People everywhere are linked by the Internet and satellite television transmissions. Yet paradoxically, nations are increasingly subdividing and fragmenting along old ethnic and religious lines.

Where is it all leading? While the world economy becomes ever more interconnected, ancient ethnic rivalries and hatreds are being renewed afresh. Leaders in finance and government cite these continually increasing pressures to illustrate the need for a viable alternative to the present, unsteady system of independent nation-states.

It is apparent that unless human emotions can be channeled differently, they will fracture the whole global economic structure. Humanity is seeking an identity that reaches beyond current divisions and rivalries. Internationalists have a great desire to supplant the independent nation-state with something greater. Still, they have been unable to devise a solution that would claim the loyalty and stir the emotions of the average man in the street. People do not develop intense emotional loyalty to faceless bureaucrats or to goals of maximizing corporate profits.

Where is this looming crisis—fragmentation in an age of globalism—really taking us? There is only one source where you can find the answer! The Creator God is the One who has declared the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), and He lays it out for us in His book, the Bible.

The most complete outline of future events is found in that last and most mysterious of Bible books, the book of Revelation. In it we read of a mysterious Beast which is described with heads and horns, bringing a dreadful mark. This creature is described as dominating the whole world and wielding awesome power and control.

But what does this all mean? Can you really understand it anyway? Though much of Revelation is in symbolic language, the Bible actually interprets its own symbols! Read on to understand the clear message of the prophecies of your Bible regarding the Beast of Revelation. These prophetic words will have more effect on your world and your own future than you can possibly imagine.

CHAPTER 1
THE BOOK OF DANIEL—KEY TO AN ANCIENT MYSTERY

All eyes turned as an elderly man walked erectly into the brightly lit and lavishly decorated banquet room. Wine-induced laughter and loud banter—which had filled the room a mere hour ago—had abruptly given way to an eerie silence followed by subdued whisperings in the aftermath of a spine-chilling scene. During the height of the revelry, a hand had appeared out of thin air and had written on the wall a message in large letters.

The occasion was a great banquet thrown by Babylonian King Belshazzar to celebrate the invincibility of Babylon. Babylon, which had been under siege by the troops of Cyrus the Great of Persia, considered that her walls were impregnable.

So, on that evening of the new moon of the seventh month in 539bc, Babylon’s powerful elite celebrated and drank toasts. Belshazzar had even insisted that the sacred vessels taken from the temple in Jerusalem by his grandfather decades earlier be brought. He wanted to use them as drinking goblets. Then the handwriting on the wall appeared, and the party came to a stunned halt. The message inscribed on the wall read, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” The words were well-known Chaldean terms for units of weight, but their significance was utterly incomprehensible to those watching.

The elderly man summoned by the king was named Daniel. He had been brought to Babylon as a teenaged Jewish captive, and had risen to high office under Belshazzar’s grandfather. Daniel proceeded to explain to the king that the God of heaven had numbered his kingdom and that it was at an end. The king had been weighed in the balance scale and found wanting. That very night his kingdom was to be delivered into the hands of the besieging Medes and Persians.

Within hours the Persian army had totally overrun the city, having entered it by coming underneath the mammoth city walls. The river, which flowed underneath the city walls, had been diverted by a canal several hours earlier. In the dark, pre-dawn hours, Persian troops marched through the dry riverbed and opened the massive city gates from the inside. Before the sun rose, they had conquered Babylon and executed King Belshazzar with a sword.

Confronted by the evening’s events, Daniel’s mind was drawn back to a scene that had occurred some 65 years earlier. Though he had then been a young man still in his teens, he had been brought into the presence of the ruler of what was then the most powerful country on earth. His own life, and the lives of his closest friends, had hung in the balance that day. Daniel’s purpose in being brought before King Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar’s grandfather, had been to interpret a baffling dream that the king had experienced a few days earlier. Daniel had boldly announced to the skeptical, agitated ruler that there is a God in heaven who is a revealer of secrets. He then presented a God-inspired interpretation of the king’s strange dream.

THE BOOK OF DANIEL SETS THE STAGE

In 604bc, the Chaldean army, under King Nebuchadnezzar, swept from Carchemish down the Jezreel Valley and captured the city of Jerusalem, reducing Judea to a tributary state. Several of the children of prominent Jewish families were taken back to Babylon as captives. During the decades that followed, one of those captives, Daniel, rose to hold high offices of trust in Babylon. The God of Israel, whom he continued to serve faithfully, gave Daniel many visions and interpretations of visions which he recorded in the book of Daniel.

Look carefully at the prophetic outline of world events that God inspired Daniel to record. The Bible really does interpret itself, and the book of Daniel is pivotal to understanding the book of Revelation and other end-time prophecies.

Daniel 2:1 describes King Nebuchadnezzar’s troubling dream, hidden from the king’s magicians and astrologers. They failed to recount back to him this puzzling dream. Finally Daniel came in to the king and explained to him that there is a God in heaven who is a revealer of secrets, and that He would reveal to Daniel not only the dream, but also its interpretation (v. 28). Daniel then explained to the king that in his dream he had seen a great image rising above the plains of Shinar. This mammoth image had a head of gold, shoulders and chest of silver, thighs of brass and legs of iron. The iron legs ended with feet which were composed of a mix of iron and clay (vv. 31–33). Nebuchadnezzar had in his dream watched a great stone of supernatural origin (“cut out without hands”) come down from heaven and smash the image on its ten toes, at which point the whole image was turned to chaff and blew away. The stone became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth (vv. 34–35).

What did this mean? Remember that the Bible interprets itself! Daniel was inspired to tell Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:38, “You are this head of gold.” He also told the king in Daniel 2:39–40 that three more kingdoms would each arise in turn after him. Daniel was inspired to record for us that four great kingdoms or empires would in succession dominate history, after which the God of heaven will set up His everlasting kingdom at the time of the final ten kings—which are represented by the toes on the feet of the “iron legs” of the fourth kingdom (vv. 41–44).

Daniel 2:28 emphasizes that the living God whom we serve is a “revealer of secrets.” The king’s dream was meant to reach from the days of ancient King Nebuchadnezzar to “the latter days” of this world, culminating with the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth (v. 44). Have the events Daniel foretold come to pass just as he foresaw? They absolutely have, as we shall see.

In Daniel 5, we read of the events surrounding the fall of Babylon to the armies of King Cyrus the Great. The empire of the Medes and the Persians was the “second kingdom” that arose after Babylon. History tells us that the reign of the vast-reaching Medo-Persian Empire established by King Cyrus continued just over 200 years.

Then, beginning in 333bc at the Battle of Arabella, the Persian Empire collapsed and the third great world-ruling kingdom took over. This was the Greco-Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great. The Hellenistic empires of Alexander’s successors dominated the Middle East for about 300 years until they were finally swallowed up, one by one, by the fourth great world-ruling empire—the kingdom of iron.

This fourth kingdom, clearly identified in history as the Roman Empire, was prophesied to continue as two “legs” all the way down to the end-time. In that end-time, the ten toes (or kings, Daniel 2:44) would constitute the final embodiment of this system that had its origins in ancient Babylon. If we let the Bible interpret itself, this progression of four world-ruling kingdoms is clear.

THE BEAST OF DANIEL 7

In Daniel 7:1–3, we find that decades after his interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel himself had an unusual dream in which he stood staring transfixed at dark swirling clouds and a raging sea. From this stormy sea he saw “four great beasts” arise and proceed, one by one, to shore. The first was like a lion, the second like a bear and the third like a four-headed leopard. The fourth Beast was described as a terrible creature with huge iron teeth (vv. 4–7). Out of the head of this fourth Beast arose ten horns. The end of Daniel’s vision revealed a time when “the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever” (Daniel 7:18). Remember, the vision in Daniel 2 also ended at the establishment of the kingdom of heaven.

Should we let our imaginations soar in trying to discern the identity of these creatures, or should we let the Bible interpret itself? According to verse 17, these four creatures which arose successively (vv. 3–7) symbolize four kings or kingdoms. According to verse 23, the fourth Beast represents the “fourth kingdom upon the earth.” We have already seen from Daniel 2 a succession of four kingdoms. The scenarios recorded in both Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 recount four great world-ruling empires, which were to arise successively. Each scenario ends with the establishment of the Kingdom of God to rule the earth. Clearly these two visions are recording different details of the same set of events.

When we compare the visions of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, we find that the first kingdom of Daniel 2—the head of gold—is equated with the lion, the king of beasts, in Daniel 7. The second kingdom—the silver of Daniel 2—is compared to a bear in Daniel 7. The third kingdom—the brass of Daniel 2—parallels the four-headed leopard in Daniel 7.

Why four heads? History records that after Alexander’s death, his empire was divided among four of his generals. This four-fold division was prophesied in Daniel 8:8. All four kingdoms were Greek in culture and language. They were a divided continuation of the empire that had been unified under Alexander for less than a decade. Just as Persia’s ponderous size and might was symbolized by a bear, the lightning-like quickness of Alexander’s Greek armies was well described by the leopard metaphor.

Daniel 8 records more details of the interaction of the second and third kingdoms—Persia and Greece. Daniel 8:3–4 describes a two-horned ram going out to subdue everything in all directions. According to Daniel 8:20, this ram represented “the kings of Media and Persia.” A powerful he-goat with one great horn coming up from between his eyes then defeated the ram completely (vv. 5–7). According to verse 21 (KJV), “the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.” After Alexander’s death (“the great horn was broken” v. 8, KJV), “four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power” (v. 22, KJV). This is why, in Daniel 7, we see the third kingdom described as a four-headed creature.

These events set the stage for the fourth kingdom described in Daniel 7, too terrible to be characterized by one of the above animals. Daniel 2 characterizes this kingdom with two legs of iron, and Daniel 7 portrays it as a creature with huge iron teeth. Daniel 2:40 explains, “And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.” Notice what Daniel 7:19–23 reveals about this fourth kingdom. “Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet… The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces.” It is this fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire that is pictured as continuing in one form or another until the time of Christ’s return. Does history confirm this? Absolutely!

Just as Medo-Persia had absorbed Babylon, and Alexander the Great had absorbed the empire of the Medes and Persians, so the Romans absorbed all four of the “heads” that had sprung from Alexander’s empire. When Alexander died at Babylon in 323bc, an attempt was made to hold his empire together. A regency was proclaimed to govern in the joint names of his nephew and his unborn son. This attempt failed. Within a few years, his empire was divided among four Greek generals who proclaimed themselves kings, just as Daniel had foreseen (Daniel 8:21–22).

In 307bc, Antigonus and his son Demetrius “took the title king, whereupon Ptolemy and Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus did the same. The unity of Alexander’s empire was thus openly ended” (Encyclopedia of World History, William L. Langer, 1968, p. 90).

Cassander seized Greece and Macedonia and, with the aid of Lysimachus and Seleucus, triumphed over Antigonus who was slain at the Battle of Ipsus in 301bc. In turn, however, Cassander’s dynasty was overthrown in 276bc by Antigonus’ grandson, Antigonus II, who established a dynasty that held Greece and Macedon until the Roman conquest in 168bc, when this area became absorbed into the Roman Empire.

Lysimachus, who seized Asia Minor and proclaimed himself king in 305bc, was eventually defeated and slain at the Battle of Corpedium in 281bc by his erstwhile ally, Seleucus. Eumenes I, the Seleucid governor of Pergamum (Asia Minor), succeeded in becoming virtually independent of the Seleucids by about 260bc. By 230bc his successor had taken the title “king.” When Attalus III died in 133bc, his will left his kingdom of Pergamum and Asia Minor to the Romans. Rome had thus absorbed the second head of Daniel’s leopard.

Seleucus established a kingdom which stretched eastward to Babylon and westward to Syria. The Seleucid dynasty which sprang from him continued until 64bc, when the Roman general Pompey made Syria a province in the expanding Roman Empire.

The Macedonian general Ptolemy took the title “king” at the same time as his three contemporaries, Cassander, Lysimachus and Seleucus. His kingdom was centered in Egypt and continued under his descendants down to Cleopatra’s death in 30bc following her defeat by the Romans. Julius Caesar’s nephew Octavian (later known as Augustus Caesar) defeated the forces of Cleopatra and Marc Antony at the Battle of Actium, and absorbed Egypt into the Roman Empire. “This brought to an end the last of the Hellenistic monarchies” (Langer, p. 97). With this conquest, all four heads of the Greco-Macedonian leopard were an integral part of the Roman Empire, the fourth Beast of Daniel 7.

CHAPTER 2
THE BEAST OF REVELATION REVEALED

Napoleon, Hitler and Saddam Hussein have something in common. So also do Mikhail Gorbachev, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt and various and sundry popes. Some have labeled them—and countless other figures, well known and obscure—as the mysterious Beast described in the book of Revelation. Institutions such as the League of Nations, the United Nations, international communism—and even the United States government—have in the last century also been called the Beast.

Other commentators have argued that the book of Revelation is only to be understood as a metaphor for the battle between good and evil. To these commentators, the Beast is the personification of evil, not a historical figure or institution.

“But,” some might ask, “aren’t there all sorts of views and interpretations of Bible prophecy?” Of course there are! It seems that most would-be interpreters start with what they see on the world scene and then attempt to read it back into the Bible. This is why nearly all who commented on Bible prophecy in the 1950s and 1960s identified the Soviet Union’s communist empire as the scarlet-colored Beast of Revelation. A few years ago it was Saddam Hussein. Today, many commentators identify the “New World Order” or the United Nations as the Beast. There seem to be just about as many interpretations as there are interpreters.

The Creator God does not intend Bible prophecy to be understood by an exercise in creative imagination. Neither is prophecy to be understood by looking at contemporary events and attempting to read them back into the Bible account. Rather, no prophecy of the Scriptures is to be of any private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20). If the Bible uses symbolic language, it contains in its text the keys to understanding what the symbols mean.

REVELATION 13 EXAMINED

The elderly Apostle John stood upon the sandy shore of the Isle of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea. As he gazed out to sea, the scene before him seemed to change. Dark clouds lowered and the sea appeared to churn. As he stared transfixed, a strange creature rose up out of the water. This creature had the body of a leopard, the mouth of a lion and the feet of a bear. It thus embodied the main characteristics of the first three creatures Daniel had seen in his vision recorded in Daniel 7. The Beast that John saw also had seven heads and ten horns. We are told that “the dragon” gave this creature its power and authority. Finally, we are told that one of this creature’s heads was wounded to death and was then healed. After the healing, the creature continued for 42 months (Revelation 13:1–5).

An almost identical scene is described in Daniel 7. In his vision, Daniel had seen four creatures—a lion, a bear, a four-headed leopard and a fourth terrible creature with ten horns—arise up out of a dark and stormy sea (Daniel 7:1–7). The creatures that Daniel saw are clearly identified as the succession of empires from Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, to Medo-Persia, to Alexander’s Greek empire which split four ways after his death and finally to the Roman Empire. It is out of the fourth creature, symbolizing the Roman Empire, that the “ten horns” arose.

Notice the similarity of the two accounts. In each case there are seven heads. In Revelation 13 John saw one creature, not four distinct ones, but the characteristics were the same: seven heads and ten horns were described. In each account the prophets used the symbolism of a lion, a bear and a leopard. Why were there differences in the visions?

When Daniel saw his vision, it was virtually all future. Babylon, symbolized by a lion, was on the scene and the others were yet to come. When John wrote, more than 600 years later, Babylon, Persia and Greece had all passed into history. John focused not on the different heads to arise, but upon the details concerning the seventh head, the one that was extant in his day and whose history he recorded in advance. Where Daniel focused on four empires, John focused on one system derived from Babylon. He saw the various empires as merely different heads of the same creature. Daniel identified what he saw as beginning in his days and continuing on until the return of Christ when the saints would possess the kingdom (Daniel 7:18). The Roman Empire of John’s day was simply a continuation of what had begun in Babylon.

Remember that the Bible interprets its own symbols. Daniel 7:23 makes plain that the four creatures (embodying seven heads) represent kingdoms. In Revelation 17:9–10, the seven heads of the Beast are identified as “seven mountains” or “seven kings.” According to Daniel 7:24 and Revelation 17:12, horns symbolize kings or kingdoms. As for the dragon which is the source of power for this system, Revelation 12:9 tells us “the great dragon… [is] that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan.”

What of the head “wounded to death”? Remember, of the seven-headed Beast described in Revelation 13, only the final seventh head, the Roman Empire, was extant in John’s day. The fulfillment of the previous six heads had already passed into history by the time of John’s writing. Did the Roman Empire receive a deadly wound, then later come back to life and continue “forty-two [prophetic] months”?

The date that has for centuries been taken as the line of demarcation between ancient and medieval history is 476ad. This date, the traditional “fall” of the Roman Empire, marks the murder of the last Roman emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus, by the barbarians. In the next chapter we will examine this empire’s subsequent revival.

But first, notice another detail described in both Daniel 7 and in Revelation 13. In each account we read of ten horns coming up out of the Beast’s seventh head, the Roman Empire. John saw each of these horns as having a crown upon it (Revelation 13:1) and Daniel explained that they represented kings or kingdoms (Daniel 7:24).

Daniel also tells us that from among these ten horns came up a “little horn” which caused the first three to be “plucked out.” To see what this means, we must look further at the history of the old Roman Empire.

THE STORY OF THE FIRST THREE “HORNS”

In 286ad, the emperor Diocletian divided the Roman Empire into East and West for administrative purposes. This was symbolized by the “two legs” described in Daniel 2. Serious trouble lay ahead, however, for the western “leg.” By 400ad, the empire in the West was in its death throes. Following barbarian incursions on the frontiers, Rome itself was sacked and looted—for the first time in eight centuries—by Alaric and his Visigoths in 409ad.

As the Roman Empire in the West collapsed, three groups of barbarian invaders—the Vandals, the Heruli and the Ostrogoths—sought to establish themselves as the successors to the Roman emperors of the West. The emperor in the East officially recognized each as a continuation of legitimate Roman government in the West. Yet another emerging ruler in the West eventually obtained their overthrow and ouster.

This emerging ruler was the bishop of Rome. While the western emperors grew weaker, his power and stature increased. This involved not only a growing religious power over the professing Christian community, but civil and political power as well. The Vandals, the Herulii and the Ostrogoths particularly disturbed him. While they professed Christianity, it was a non-Trinitarian brand called Arianism. They were not “orthodox” and were therefore viewed as a threat to the religious unity of the empire.

The Vandals invaded North Africa in 429ad. After several years of fighting, they entered into a treaty in 435 whereby the Romans “recognized” them as the legitimate continuation of the empire in North Africa (Langer, p. 135). The Vandals sought to expand their power as successor to Rome. In 455 they even pillaged the city of Rome itself. They were so thorough that to this day the name “vandal” is attached to those who destroy others’ property. But ultimately, the Vandals were uprooted. “In Africa the Vandals were hated as Arians [by the Church of Rome] and they had to deal with serious Berber revolts, but their power was not broken until the 533–548 Vandalic Wars of [eastern emperor] Justinian” (Langer, p. 159).

In 476, about 20 years after the Vandals sacked Rome, the Herulii, under their leader Odoacer, deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last western Roman emperor. The eastern emperor, Zeno, “recognized” Odoacer as the legitimate continuation of Roman government in Italy. Odoacer was an Arian, however, and after an appeal by the Bishop of Rome, Zeno dispatched Theodoric, the leader of the Ostrogoths, to drive out the Herulii in 488. “The orthodox bishops of Italy, disliking Odoacer’s Arianism, supported the Arian invader [Theodoric] as representing an almost orthodox emperor. With their help Theodoric broke Odoacer’s sturdy resistance in five years of war, and persuaded him to a compromise peace [in 493]. He invited Odoacer and his son to dine with him in Ravenna, fed them generously, and slew them with his own hand” (The Story of Civilization, Will Durant, vol. 4, pp. 97–98).

Ostrogothic rule of Italy, though accepted as a means of getting rid of the Herulii, remained unpopular with the bishop of Rome and the Roman Catholic population. General Belisarius, who had been sent from Constantinople in 533ad with 500 transport ships and 92 warships to rid Africa of the Vandals, came to Italy in 536 to drive out the Ostrogoths. “The Ostrogothic forces were meager and divided; the people of Rome hailed Belisarius as a liberator, the clergy welcomed him as a Trinitarian; he entered Rome unopposed” (Durant, p. 109).

Thus the first three “horns” were plucked up at the behest of the bishop of Rome, the “little horn” of Daniel 7. The stage was being set for the true revival of the Roman Empire in the West. This revival in 554, like all the revivals that have occurred since, involved the bishop of Rome’s blessing and his role as an intimate player in the various continuations of the empire of ancient Rome.

CHAPTER 3
ROME—ANCIENT AND FUTURE MASTER OF THE WORLD?

The tourist posters display a fascinating Rome—a city of seven hills covered with the architectural glories of the past and present. Rome is a city of contrasts. Old buildings and ancient ruins jostle side by side with a thriving, modern city. Twenty-seven centuries have come and gone since its legendary founding at the hands of Romulus and Remus. During this long expanse of time, this remarkable city has played an unparalleled role in the history of western civilization, as a seat of ongoing intrigue and power!

Nestled within the city of Rome is the world’s smallest sovereign territory—Vatican City. Maintaining its own diplomatic relations with all the major powers, this minuscule city-state, ruled by the Roman pontiff, is a full participant in international affairs. The Vatican aspires to be far more than a mere participant, however. It seeks to once again achieve the guiding role it played for so many centuries.

Though Rome’s ancient empire received a fatal wound with the death of the last emperor in 476ad, that was not the end of the story! The first three kingdoms springing out of the old Roman Empire, the Vandals, Herulii, and Ostrogoths, were uprooted. The might of the eastern emperor, Justinian, accomplished this “plucking up” at the behest of Rome’s pope. Justinian’s “imperial restoration” in 554 “healed” the “deadly wound” and launched the first of six historical attempts to revive and carry on the empire of ancient Rome. And according to the Bible, there is a seventh and final revival yet to come. Your life will be affected profoundly by events yet to take place in what its residents call the “eternal” city!

THE DEADLY WOUND IS HEALED

With the conclusion of the Gothic Wars in 553ad, Italy was left in poverty and disorder. Rome had been captured, besieged, looted and starved. Finally the armies of the eastern Roman emperor Justinian stood victorious. Justinian’s armies had succeeded in reconquering Italy and remnants of the western empire, but how was he to govern it? The answer lay in an alliance of church and state that has shaped the history of western Europe ever since. Though secular authority in the West had collapsed, “the survival of ecclesiastical organization [under the bishop of Rome] appeared even to the emperors as the salvation of the state. In 554 Justinian promulgated a decree requiring that ‘fit and proper persons, able to administer the local government, be chosen as governors of the provinces by the bishops and chief persons of each province‘” (Durant, pp. 519–520).

This event is known in history as the Imperial Restoration. The emperors in Byzantium continued as nominal rulers of a revived Imperium Romanum in the West from 554 until 800. By the terms of Justinian’s decree, however, the bishops of Rome (now called popes) held the reins of power and were thus the real riders sitting astride the imperial Beast in the West.

It is important to note at this point a significant difference between the Beast described in Revelation 13 and the one described in Revelation 17. The Beast of Revelation 13 corresponds to what Daniel saw in Daniel 7. John described a creature that began in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon and continued on to his day. Out of the seventh head, the Roman Empire, would arise ten kingdoms. Daniel 7 explained that the first three of those ten horns would be “plucked out.” However, the Beast of Revelation 17 is different. It is a creature ridden by the woman, unlike the earlier description. The Beast in Revelation 17 is the one “that was and is not” (v. 11)—the Roman Empire after the deadly wound is healed. This is what history has ironically and misleadingly labeled the “Holy” Roman Empire, dominated by the Church of Rome, which has continued from 554ad through various revivals to modern times.

Revelation 17:11 explains that this Beast “is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition” (KJV). It is a continuation of the seven-headed creature described in Revelation 13, but it is in some ways like an eighth head on that creature since it begins after the last head of the Beast of Revelation 13 receives a “deadly wound.” The seven heads of the Revelation 17 Beast are seven kingdoms (v. 10). They are the seven resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire, corresponding to the last seven of the “ten horns” of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. The ten horns of Revelation 17 are also ten kings or kingdoms (v. 12). They give power to the final revival of the Holy Roman Empire and will be destroyed by Christ at His coming (v. 14), thus corresponding to the ten toes on the image described in Daniel 2.

Now, look more closely at the history of the “seven heads” mentioned in Revelation 17. In the years after the imperial restoration, the eastern emperors generally focused their attention closer to home. The protection and security that the eastern emperors provided for the West became negligible. Private negotiations between Charles, King of the Franks, and Leo, Bishop of Rome, were held to resolve this problem. The results of the negotiations were made manifest in 800ad.

“On Christmas Day, as Charlemagne [King of the Franks], in the chlamys and sandals of a patricius romanus, knelt before St. Peter’s altar in prayer, [Pope] Leo suddenly produced a jeweled crown, and set it upon the King’s head. The congregation, perhaps instructed beforehand to act according to ancient ritual as the senatus populusque Romanus confirming a coronation, thrice cried out: ‘Hail to Charles the Augustus, crowned by God the great and peace-bringing Emperor of the Romans!’ The royal head was anointed with holy oil, the Pope saluted Charlemagne as Emperor and Augustus…” (Durant, pp. 468–469). After several years of dispute, the eastern emperor at Byzantium recognized Charlemagne as co-emperor. The Imperium in the West passed to yet a second head since the days of the “deadly wound” in 476 and its subsequent “healing” in 554. Both times were at papal behest and with papal blessing.

As historian Will Durant puts it: “Out of this intimate co-operation of Church and state came one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of statesmanship: the transformation of Charlemagne’s realm into a Holy Roman Empire that should have behind it all the prestige, sanctity, and stability of both Imperial and papal Rome” (Durant, p. 468).

During the century and a half that followed Charlemagne’s coronation, his empire slowly disintegrated under weak successors. By 936 the German Saxons had become the most powerful group in central Europe. In 955 Otto, Duke of the Saxons and King of the Germans, defeated the Magyars who were attempting to invade western Europe from the East. Several years later he entered Italy at the request of Pope John XII to restore him to power and in the aftermath received the imperial crown at Pavia in 962. “Thus once again the ghost of the Roman empire was summoned to sanction the successful state building of a semi-barbarian king” (Handbook of Western Civilization, William McNiel, p. 317). Otto’s coronation marked the inauguration of a third head in the continuity of the western empire since Justinian’s imperial restoration.

How did Otto’s contemporaries and their successors view the significance of his revival of the empire? As historian Robert Hertzstein wrote, “the Empire was understood not as a mere term, but as a universal Christian regent for God on Earth, to exist until the coming of the Anti-Christ. Like Charlemagne, Otto received his throne through the Papal claim that the Roman Church had been the only Imperial elector since the early fourth century… The Holy Roman Empire was thus to a large extent German in its ethnic and political base, Christian in its moral justification, and Roman in its claim to legitimacy and universality” (The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, ed. Hertzstein, p. viii).

In an essay titled “The Empire as a Regency for God on Earth,” noted Austrian historian Friedrich Heer wrote: “The task of the Empire was to be God’s protagonist on earth, to fulfill His aims here, to protect Christianity and the Church, and to preserve the righteousness of God and the divine order of the universe on earth. The earthly Empire was the transitory reflection of the eternal City of God… In the imperial symbols this claim was displayed to the whole world: with the imperial apple, filled with earth from the four corners of the world, the Emperor holds the whole world in his hand… [the emperor] called the imperial crown corona urbis et orbis [the crown of Rome and of the globe]; he viewed himself as the caput mundi and as the dominator obris et urbis [head of the world and ruler of the globe and of Rome]” (Hertzstein, pp. 64–65).

Otto’s revived empire continued for almost 300 years. Finally, with the death of Conrad IV in 1254, the empire became so rent by rival factions that a 19-year interregnum (time without an emperor) resulted. In its aftermath, Rudolph I was elected emperor in 1273—the first of the Hapsburg family to be elevated to the imperial throne. The apex of this fourth revival of the old Roman imperium was the crowning of Rudolph’s descendant, Charles V, in Bologna by Pope Clement VII in 1530. Charles ruled over a vast empire. From his mother (Joan, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain) he had inherited Spain and all Spanish possessions in the New World. From his father he inherited the vast Hapsburg domains in Germany, Italy and central Europe.

After Charles V, Hapsburg power waned. By the 18th century, “Holy Roman Emperor” was an increasingly empty title. In the final decade of the 18th century, all of Europe was shaken by the French Revolution and its aftermath. A man both highly gifted and supremely ambitious came to power in France. His name was Napoleon, and he aspired to far more than the presidency of a French Republic or even becoming a new king of France. His ambition could only be satisfied by the reestablishment of the Roman Empire—with himself as emperor. As historian Will Durant notes, “he dreamt of rivaling Charlemagne and uniting western Europe” (The Story of Civilization, Will Durant, vol. 11, p. 243).

Napoleon considered himself a successor to Caesar and Charlemagne. Staging a plebiscite which he won by a vote of 3,572,329 to 2,569, Napoleon had the French Senate proclaim him emperor on May 18, 1804. Immediately he began negotiations with Pope Pius VII to come to Paris and consecrate him as emperor. The negotiations were successful and the coronation occurred on December 2.

The Hapsburgs of Austria felt keenly the successive diplomatic and military pushes of Napoleon, especially his assumption of the imperial title. Two years later, at Napoleon’s instigation, 16 princes and their states withdrew from the Holy Roman Empire, formed the Confederation of the Rhine and asked Napoleon to take them under his protection as a part of his empire. The following month, on August 6, 1806, Francis II renounced his now-empty title as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon’s European empire now stretched from the Atlantic to the Elbe. Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, western Germany and eventually all of Italy formed his renewed empire. Napoleon thus became the fifth head of the revived western Imperium since the days of Justinian.

Napoleon’s empire was not destined to be long-lived, however. A British-led coalition brought about his defeat and abdication in 1814. This ended a period of 1,260 years since the imperial restoration under Justinian in 554. Thus the prophecy in Revelation 13:3–5 of the Beast receiving a deadly wound, the wound being healed, and then the Beast “given authority to continue for forty-two months” was fulfilled (42 “months” of 30 days equal 1,260 “days”). Napoleon’s abdication marked the end of an epoch. According to prophecy there were yet to be two more attempted revivals of the glory and grandeur of ancient Rome.

TWO FINAL REVIVALS—One Past and One Yet to Come

After Napoleon’s collapse in 1814, Germany and Italy remained divided and impotent for the next half-century. Each was divided into a number of small states and principalities and was rent with internal squabbles. By 1871, Bismarck had succeeded in uniting all of non-Hapsburg Germany under the Prussian king while Garibaldi succeeded in uniting all of Italy under the northern Italian king of Sardinia-Piedmont.

Fifty years after the inauguration of Garibaldi’s union, a strong man, who had visions of once again restoring the grandeur and glory of ancient Rome, came to power in this united Italy. His name was Benito Mussolini and he led his Fascists to power in 1922. The Fascists derived their name from the fasces of Imperial Rome. The fasces was an ax wrapped in a bundle of rods signifying unity and authority. It was carried by Roman consuls as a symbol of their office.

Since 1870, when King Victor Emmanuel’s Italian army had defeated the armies of the pope and captured Rome, there had been a tense standoff between the popes and the new rulers of Italy. Finally in 1929 Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the papacy, which established papal sovereignty over Vatican City and made Mussolini’s government the first Italian government in modern history to be recognized officially by the pope.

The Concordat signed between the papacy and Italy’s Fascist government was a prelude to one signed four years later between the papacy and the German Nazi government. The role of the Vatican in establishing both Mussolini and Hitler in power is detailed in Hitler’s Pope, the Secret History of Pius XII (John Cornwell, Viking, 1999).

Anxious to restore “glory,” Mussolini looked for places to conquer. Ethiopia, whose armies had routed the Italians out of East Africa in 1896, seemed a likely prospect. Mussolini’s armies successfully invaded Ethiopia and Somaliland. In 1936 he grandiosely proclaimed, from the balcony of the Palace Venezia, “after 15 centuries, the reappearance of the Empire on the fated hills of Rome.” Mussolini then proceeded to enter into an alliance with Adolph Hitler, ruler of Germany since 1933, that resulted in the Rome-Berlin Axis of World War II. This sixth attempt at uniting Europe by reviving the concept of imperial Rome went down in flames and ignominy in 1945.

Many said in the aftermath of World War II that Europe’s day was gone. Cities, countryside and national economies were devastated throughout the continent, especially in Germany. Many thought Russian communism was the wave of the future in Europe. After all, Stalin quickly planted the Russian boot on as much of Europe as he could immediately after the war. The idea of a German-led Europe playing a dominant role in world affairs was something that most observers said could never again happen.

Yet in 1957, within 12 years of the end of World War II, the Treaty of Rome instituted a fledgling Common Market consisting of France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux states. This was the direct predecessor of today’s powerful European Union.

PROPHECIES FOR OUR DAY AND BEYOND

Is this European Union setting the stage for the future—a seventh and final attempt at resurrecting the grandeur and might of imperial Rome? When Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are compared, we see that the “ten horns” (kingdoms) sprang out of the Roman Empire, the seventh head of the Beast. The first three of these “horns,” the Vandals, Herulii and Ostrogoths, were “plucked up” at papal behest. This fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel 7:7–8, 23–25, leaving the final seven “horns.” Six attempts to restore the empire of ancient Rome occurred with papal sanction. They have come and gone, and are now part of the historical record.

The story of the seven revivals (six in the past and one yet future) is also told symbolically in Revelation 17. Here we find pictured another Beast with seven heads and ten horns. This creature is different from that of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13—it is ridden by a woman, symbolizing a religious organization labeled “Mystery, Babylon the Great.” In other words, it is a perpetuation of the old Babylonian mystery religion now grown great and powerful.

The seven-headed creature of Revelation 17 is clearly the Holy Roman Empire, because “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits” (Revelation 17:9). In verse 10, the seven “mountains” are identified as seven kings or kingdoms. The creatures portrayed in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 were not ridden by the woman. The Beast of Revelation 17 is. Like its predecessor, it has ten horns on its final head. In Revelation 17, the ten horns represent ten future rulers who will collectively give their power and authority to “the Beast”—an end-time revival of the old Holy Roman Empire. The time setting is yet ahead of us because these ten will fight against Christ at His return (Revelation 17:12–14, 17).

This brings us back to the first vision that Daniel interpreted—the image in Daniel 2 of the two legs of iron ending in feet of iron and clay. The ten toes, five on each foot, were pictured as being smashed by Christ at His return prior to setting up the Kingdom of God on earth (Daniel 2:34–35, 42–44). The ten toes of Daniel 2 and the ten horns of Revelation 17 are synonymous, symbolizing ten rulers who will collectively support and give their allegiance to the seventh and final resurrection of the Roman Empire.

The legs of the Daniel 2 image represent the Roman Empire divided into the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire by the emperor Diocletian in 286ad. Bible prophecy focuses on the continuation of the western empire—the Beast ridden by the “woman.” Yet Daniel 2 shows that the eastern leg has a part to play in the final revival. The eastern Roman Empire continued with emperors ruling in Constantinople until 1453, when the Ottoman Turks overran the city and killed the last emperor, Constantine XI.

But that was not the end of the eastern leg. In 1472, 19 years after the fall of Constantinople, the pope performed a marriage ceremony between Ivan the Great, Duke of Muscovy, and Zoe, niece and heir to the last eastern emperor. “The marriage was of importance in establishing the claim of Russian rulers to be the successors of the Greek emperors and the protectors of Orthodox Christianity… Ivan took the title Tsar, [or Czar] i.e., Caesar” (Langer, p. 342). Thus, down through history, the Roman Empire continued as two legs. Two individuals claimed to be the successors of Caesar. In the Latin, Germanic, Roman Catholic realm of the West the form of the title was Kaiser. In the Greek, Slavic, Orthodox realm of the East it was Tsar.

The One who says He declares “the end from the beginning” reveals that eventually ten kings (or rulers) who are the successors of both the eastern and western “legs” will unite. They will form the last resurrection of the Roman Empire—the final embodiment of Babylon.

There is some bad news ahead. These final ten rulers will give their support to a coming union of church and state in Europe, which will aspire to world dominance. As Johannes Haller, a popular German historian who died in 1947, put it: “In the memory of the German people the old [Holy Roman] Empire lives on as a time of greatness and splendor that must one day come to life again” (“The Greatest Epoch of the German People,” 1944).

After an interlude of apparent peace and prosperity, this system will plunge the whole world into a hellish nightmare. Unless God were to intervene by sending Jesus Christ back to this earth, utter destruction would result and no flesh would be left alive (Matthew 24:21–22, 29–30).

Yet beyond the bad news there is good news—really the best news possible. In the days of this final union of European rulers, “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed… it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44).

CHAPTER 4
THE BEAST’S MYSTERIOUS MARK

Scarcely any prophetic subject has elicited more conjecture and speculation than the “mark of the Beast.” In addition to a “mark,” Revelation 13 also mentions an “image” of the Beast as well as the mysterious “number of his name”—666. What is the significance of these mysterious symbols?

Before examining the number, the image or the mark, consider what we have established so far. The end-time Beast is clearly identified in your Bible as the modern successor to the empire of ancient Babylon. The prophet Daniel identified four successive kingdoms: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Rome, the “fourth kingdom,” was to continue through seven revivals until the return of the Messiah, when the God of heaven will destroy the final revived Roman Empire and set up a kingdom that will endure forever.

Since the Roman Empire is the Beast described by John in Revelation 13 and Revelation 17, the “mark” is a brand or mark of the Roman Empire. The “image” of the Beast must be something modeled or patterned after the Roman Empire.

Before going further, notice that Revelation 13 mentions a second “beast” with an earthly, not heavenly, origin (v. 11). It outwardly masquerades as Christian, seeking to be identified with Christ, the Lamb of God (cf. John 1:29) but receives its power from the devil, that old dragon (Revelation 12:9). In prophecy, horns are used to represent rulership or authority, and this creature is pictured with two horns. Revelation 13:12 reveals that this second beast insists that all give their allegiance and loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire, the beast whose deadly wound was healed (v. 12). This second beast is described as performing great miracles, which will deceive humanity (vv. 13–14). In Matthew 24:24, Christ prophesied of “false Christs” who will deceive all but the very elect.

Historically, was there an institution claiming to represent Christ (“like a lamb,” v. 11) and holding sway over the populace by means of various “miracles” (v. 14)—an institution which taught the devil’s false message that God’s law was “done away” and which insisted that its adherents give their loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire? Throughout the medieval period, the Church of Rome did exactly this!

Why the two horns? The Church of Rome is both an ecclesiastical and a civil government. The pope is both a religious leader and a civil head of state. Bible prophecy shows that the church-state union of the Middle Ages was a forerunner of end-time events whose scale will be far grander.

THE MYSTERIOUS MARK

What could possibly be considered the mark or brand of the Roman Empire? Whatever it is, within a few years it will be required for all of those who are going to participate in the economic system of Babylon the Great (Revelation 13:17). Yet those who accept it will, by their actions, call down upon themselves the undiluted wrath of God (Revelation 14:9–10). Whatever this mark is, it has been extant for centuries, because all of the righteous martyrs have rejected it (Revelation 20:4). Revelation 13, in describing the interaction of the Church of Rome and the medieval Holy Roman Empire, makes plain that the mark, the image and the number of the Beast’s name were all extant during the Middle Ages as a precursor of end-time events.

In years past, many suggestions have been advanced to identify this mark. Back in the 1930s, some tried to connect it with the Social Security cards required by the Roosevelt administration. Others have seen sinister implications in the universal product codes read by cash register scanners. Still others have been suspicious of bank ATM cards and other technological innovations. Many expect some sort of tattoo or hidden embedded computer chip to be foisted upon an unsuspecting populace. But unless we look at all that the Bible reveals about this subject, we will be unable to gain a clear understanding.

Revelation 14:10 reveals that those who receive the mark of the Beast will have the wrath of God poured upon them. Notice the Apostle Paul’s clear teaching about the recipients of God’s wrath. Colossians 3:6 tells us that “the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.” The mark of the Beast is therefore a brand of disobedience to God. It marks those who refuse to keep God’s commandments in spite of both the preaching of the two witnesses and even the final warning delivered by an angel of God (Revelation 14:9).

The mark of the Beast stands clearly as a brand of disobedience to God and His laws. Does the Bible reveal a contrasting sign of obedience that identifies God’s true people? Notice Exodus 31:13–17. Here God declared to ancient Israel that His Sabbaths were a sign between Him and His people forever! The Sabbath is the test commandment to identify the true God of creation and the people who are obedient to His commands and laws.

Revelation 13 explains that the mark of the Beast, a brand of disobedience to God, is taken upon the hand and the forehead. Just as disobedience is described as worn upon the hand and forehead, so also is obedience to God’s law. Notice Deuteronomy 6. “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and commandments… And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes” (vv. 1–2, 8, KJV). The hand is symbolic of actions, while the forehead is the seat of intellect. Obedience to God involves both actions (hand) and will (forehead).

The mark of the Beast is a brand of disobedience to God. Not only must this involve rejection of God’s sign of obedience, the Sabbath, but also the acceptance of a counterfeit sign or mark. This mark is, in reality, a brand deriving from Babylon and Rome. Is there such a symbol that has come all the way down to modern times?

SUN WORSHIP—SATAN’S ANCIENT COUNTERFEIT

In ancient Babylon, the kings served as high priests of the sun, Bel-Marduk. “To take the hand of Bel-Marduk” was part of the ceremony of installation as king in Assyria and Babylon (“Babylonian and Assyrian Religion,” Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed.). The celebration of the winter solstice around December 25 was regarded as the birthday of the sun. It was a major holiday associated with gift-giving and the sacred evergreen tree.

Not only did much of Babylonian pagan worship involve the sun, but so also did the worship of each of Babylon’s successors in its own turn, first in Persia and later in both the Hellenistic world and Rome. In fact, by the time each of Daniel’s four beasts arose, sun worship had risen to prominence as the imperial religion.

Persia was Babylon’s first successor. Ancient Persian religion centered on the worship of Mithras, the god of light. As a result of Babylonian influence, however, Mithras came to be identified with the Babylonian sun god. The Greeks of Asia Minor identified Mithras with their ancient sun god, Helios, and contributed to the westward spread of the cult of the sun. Alexander the Great traveled to Egypt to the Temple of Amon-Ra to be proclaimed by the priests as the literal son of the sun god. And what of Rome? “Mithras, identified with Sol Invictus at Rome, thus became the giver of authority and victory to the imperial house” (“Mithras,” Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed.). Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary states that Sol, the sun god of Rome, was worshipped as “the Baal or Bel of the Chaldeans [Babylonians]” (p. 590). Sun worship and its symbols were adopted by the Roman Empire from her predecessors and passed on to the entire western world!

In modern Lebanon today there is a tiny Arab village called Baalbek. Located there are the ruins of two majestic temples, once the pride of Heliopolis, the Greco-Roman “City of the Sun.” Notice the explanation of historian Will Durant: “Augustus planted a small colony there, and the town grew as the sacred seat of Baal the Sun-God…. Under Antoninus Pius and his successors Roman, Greek, and Syrian architects and engineers raised, on the site of an old Phoenician temple to Baal, an imposing shrine to Iuppiter Heliopolitanus” (The Story of Civilization, Will Durant, vol. 3, p. 511). Thus the Roman Jupiter became identified with Baal the ancient sun god.

Another great center of pagan sun worship was the temple at Heliopolis in Egypt, where a great obelisk sacred to the sun was located. Around 40ad, the Roman emperor Caligula had this obelisk transported from Egypt to Rome and erected in his circus on Vatican Hill. In 1586, upon order of Pope Sixtus V, this ancient obelisk—83 feet in height and weighing 320 tons—was moved a short distance to its present location. Requiring a crew of 800 workmen, 160 horses and 45 winches, the obelisk was exactly centered before the entrance of St. Peter’s Cathedral—where it remains to this day.

In ancient Rome, before the days of the empire, there was a cult devoted to Sol, the sun god. Parrinder’s World Religions from Ancient History to the Present discusses the development of sun worship as the religion of Rome:

“It was natural that as the centre of gravity of the Roman empire moved eastwards, sun-worship should grow in power. It was already strong in imperial propaganda; Nero’s Golden House was an appropriate home for the incarnate sun, and Antonius accorded the sun peculiar honour. Under the Severan dynasty sun-worship became dominant; the sun-god was portrayed with Severus’s characteristic beard, and the emperor took the title INVICTVS (unconquered), which was the peculiar epithet of the sun… The sun was a superb unifying symbol and rallying-point for the whole empire… in AD 274 Aurelian established the sun-god as the supreme god of the Roman empire” (p. 175).

Aurelian, emperor from 270–282ad, ascribed much of Rome’s third-century moral and political chaos to religious disunity. He sought to unite the whole empire in the “worship of the sun-god, and of the Emperor as the vicar of that deity on earth… He built at Rome a resplendent Temple of the Sun, in which, he hoped, the Baal of Emesa and the god of Mithraism would merge… Aurelian advanced that Orientalization of the monarchy which had begun with Elagabalus and would complete itself in Diocletian and Constantine” (Durant, p. 639).

Constantine, considered Rome’s first “Christian” emperor, was himself a devotee of the sun god. “In fact the emperor Constantine’s Christianity was ambiguous. His family owed traditional allegiance to the sun-god; the famous vision of the cross as he marched on Rome came to him from the sun; the sun continues to appear on his coins through the decade, and on his arch at Rome; his own statue at Constantinople bore the rayed crown of the sun-god” (Parrinder, p. 175). By the first century, the seven-day planetary week was being popularized at Rome. The seven-day week itself originated at creation (Genesis 1) and the knowledge of the correct weekly cycle was preserved by the Jews. However, in ancient Babylon each of the seven days of the week became associated with what the ancients called the seven planets: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. This is significant because it set the stage for an imperial proclamation that indelibly stamped upon the Christian-professing world a mark, or brand, derived from ancient sun worship.

The Encyclopædia Britannica records: “The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321ad, enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die solis)” (“Sunday,” 11th ed.).

By using the Latin term properly translated as “venerable day of the sun,” Constantine identified the first day of the week with that day dedicated from ancient times to Sol, the sun. Through the proclamation of a Roman emperor, a mark from ancient Babylon and the cult of sun worship was forcibly stamped on the inhabitants of the Roman Empire. That mark—with other associated symbols of sun worship—has continued right on down through the medieval period to modern times.

THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST

We have seen that the second beast mentioned in Revelation 13 is none other than the Church of Rome, while the first beast mentioned is the Roman Empire. The Church of Rome, this second beast, instructed that an “image” of the first beast, the Roman Empire, should be made. What is an image? It is a copy, model, representation or counterpart. The image of the Beast is therefore a counterpart to the old Roman Empire—something modeled after the pagan Roman kingdom or government. Notice the plain statement of British historian and statesman James Bryce that the “papal [system] itself had been modeled after the elder Empire” (“A History of the Holy Roman Empire Must Be Deduced from Its Theory,” Hertzstein, p. 53).

Revelation 13 explains that the false church, the second beast, insists that all people give total loyalty and devotion (worship) to the image, the religious organizational structure modeled after the old Roman Empire. It “causes” to be killed those who refuse (Revelation 13:15). During the Middle Ages, the church did not carry out the punishment itself. It simply declared as heretics those who refused adherence to the system. Those declared anathema from the church were considered as enemies of the state and were accordingly dealt with by the civil government.

The first-century Roman Empire was authoritarian. But most do not realize that for many offices election was also an honored and accepted practice. Even the emperor was elected—ostensibly by the Senate, though more commonly in fact by the Praetorian Guard or simply by the army.

Some of the very elders that Paul admonished (Acts 20:30) later became ringleaders in deceiving God’s people into following the pattern of Roman municipalities by holding public church meetings with elected officers. Notice the statements of historian Arthur Boak: “These municipalities were patterned closely after Rome, although certain titles, like those of consul and Senate, were reserved for the capital city… All officials were popularly elected” (A History of Rome to 565ad, 1965, p. 370). Dr. Boak goes on to write, “While the lower classes of Rome and the municipalities had little opportunity for political activity, they found compensation in the social life of their guilds or colleges… Thus arose professional, religious, and funerary colleges. Their organization was modeled on that of the municipalities” (pp. 370–371). Writing of the development of the incipient Roman Catholic Church, Dr. Boak adds, “In their organization these communities were all of the same general type, resembling the Roman religious collegia” (p. 401).

In the congregations, increasing numbers of unconverted people wanted “say-so.” They chose teachers who sanctioned elections, who pleased them with teachings that increasingly led them back into the pagan customs of the world around them. In his final letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul had directly prophesied of this turn of events (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

Historian Edward Gibbon wrote that “the order of public deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested at least with the authority of collecting the sentiments, and of executing the resolutions, of the assembly” (Triumph of Christendom in the Roman Empire, p. 44). Gibbon went on to describe the times following the emperor Constantine’s reign:

“But the episcopal chair was solicited, especially in the great and opulent cities of the empire, as a temporal rather than as a spiritual dignity. The interested views, the selfish and angry passions, the arts of perfidy and dissimulation, the secret corruption, the open and even bloody violence, which had formerly disgraced the freedom of election in the commonwealths of Greece and Rome, too often influenced the choice of the successors of the apostles” (p. 336).

Using the institutions and practices of the Roman Empire as a model, men devised a church government structure. Political maneuvering became a substitute for seeking God’s will. Popular and soothing teachings were substituted for the plain word of God, which offered correction and rebuke.

The problem with the Church of Rome was that it substituted a human political structure in place of God’s government. In God’s government, elders are to be appointed, based upon their fruits, by those Christ has already set as leaders in His Church (Titus 1:5–9). God’s government is based upon His law. God validates it based upon positive fruit being borne (Matthew 7:15–23; cf. Numbers 17:7–10).

The Church of Rome developed on the model of the old Roman Empire from which it derived its structure. Idolatrous allegiance to the organizational structure was demanded, even if it sought to “change times and laws” (cf. Daniel 7:25). In God’s government, He makes it plain where He is working by the fruits, and we submit to human leaders as long as they are following Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME

What of the mysterious number 666? Many ingenious solutions have been devised to label desired individuals with that number. But what does the Bible mean when it tells us that this is the number of a man?

Before Arabic numerals became accepted in the western world in the 13th century, letters of the alphabet doubled as numerals. Thus all names had numeric value. Most of us are familiar with Roman numerals, where the letters of the Latin alphabet have numeric value. In this system I=1, V=5, X=10, and so on. Greek and Hebrew are the languages in which the Bible was written, and both use a similar system.

The earliest proposed solution to the meaning of 666 is a tradition attributed to Polycarp, the disciple of the same Apostle John who wrote Revelation. This tradition is preserved in the second century writings of Irenaeus. The number 666 is “…contained in the Greek letters of Lateinos (L=30; A=1; T=300; E=5; I=10; N=50; O=70; S=200)” (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown). Lateinos is a Greek term referring to the Romans. Interestingly, the Greek expression meaning “the Latin kingdom” (h Latine Basileia) also has a numeric value of 666. Greek writers commonly referred to the Roman Empire in this way. The book of Revelation was originally written in Greek, as it was written to Greek-speaking churches in ancient Asia Minor.

Another interesting explanation involves the name of the emperor Nero, who died about 25 years before John wrote Revelation. Though Nero was dead, his rule was nevertheless a type of the end-time Roman system. He was brought to power promising constitutional reforms and a return to the “golden age” of Augustus, but became increasingly cruel and despotic after achieving power. Living in an atmosphere of intrigue and conspiracy, he abused his power and was responsible for the Roman state’s first official persecution of Christians. During his reign most of the Apostles, including both Peter and Paul, were martyred. His name in Greek was spelled Neron Kaesar (Nero Caesar). When the Greek form of his name is spelled out in Hebrew characters, their numeric value also adds up to 666.

The founder of ancient Rome was Romulus, from whose name Rome and Roman are derived. The Latin name Romvlvs is written in Hebrew as Romiith. In the Hebrew language this also adds up to 666 (resh=200, vau=6, mem=40, yod=10, yod=10, tau=400). Thus, in both Greek and Hebrew, the two languages of the Bible, the number 666 is stamped upon the kingdom that derived from Rome.

The years ahead of us will bring the seventh and final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. There will most likely be special numeric significance to either the name, or perhaps a special title, of the end-time leader of the Beast power. However, it is important to realize that the Roman system is already stamped with 666. That system—and its end-time resurrection—is identified as the Beast.

CHAPTER 5
A TALE OF TWO CITIES—PAST AND FUTURE

The tale of two dramatically contrasting cities is a thread that runs from beginning to end throughout the Bible. Genesis 10 introduces us to Babylon, or Babel, the city that Nimrod built. In Genesis 11, we meet Abraham, a man born in Ur of the Chaldees, an adjacent town and part of Babylon’s ancient kingdom. Genesis 12 tells of Abraham’s departure, at God’s command, from the vicinity of Babylon. In Genesis 14, Abraham comes to Jerusalem, anciently called simply Salem, to meet with Melchizedek, “the priest of the Most High God,” who both blessed Abraham and received his tithes.

In the last book of the Bible, we read of Babylon once again. Revelation 18 speaks of “Babylon the Great” and of its final and total destruction. Just as was Abraham of old, God’s end-time people are told, “Come out of her my people” (Revelation 18:4). Revelation 21 records the arrival on earth of the New Jerusalem, the city “whose maker and builder is God” (Revelation 21:2).

Babylon and Jerusalem are two ancient cities, which represent two completely opposite systems of government and ways of life. One is derived from Nimrod, the first post-flood tyrant who rebelled against God and His laws. Nimrod introduced a system of human tyrannical government and sought to build a one-world government the devil’s way. Babylon is Satan’s historic counterfeit of, and alternative to, God’s kingdom.

After God’s intervention at the Tower of Babel, Babylon’s prominence rose and fell over the following centuries. Finally in the seventh century bc, the Assyrian capital Nineveh fell to invaders, and Babylon once again came to prominence as the chief city of Mesopotamia. Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon and launched an expansion drive that gave Babylon dominance over the entire Middle East. His conquests included Judah and its capital, Jerusalem. About 586bc, the invading Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the temple of God located there. Nearly 20 years before that, a number of young Jewish captives had been taken to Babylon. Among those captives was Daniel.

On the evening that began the Feast of Trumpets in 539bc, 66 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom had begun, Daniel stood in a hushed banquet hall and read “the handwriting on the wall” to one of Nebuchadnezzar’s successors, Belshazzar. Babylon was weighed in the balance, found wanting, and would that very night give way to a successor kingdom.

The city of Babylon fell, and after centuries became a desolate and uninhabited location, but the system that originated there did not end. It continued through its successors, just as Daniel recorded so many centuries ago.

Genesis 10:10 explains that the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom was Babel. In the years just ahead of us, the end-time embodiment of that ancient kingdom is destined to once again rise. The ancient city built by Nimrod has long ago been reduced to dust and ruin, but the governmental, religious and economic system that began there has continued. Ancient Babylon has been succeeded by a modern Babylon, called by the prophet Isaiah the “daughter of Babylon” (Isaiah 47:1).

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

We are living in a turbulent world. There is fear and apprehension about the future. On the one hand, science and technology promise a world of dazzling prosperity. Yet on the other hand, nuclear war and biological and chemical terrorism threaten the very existence of our world. A great charismatic leader in Europe will arise, responding to this crisis. He will enter into an alliance of church and state that will offer peace, security and prosperity to a desperate world.

Using duplicity and intrigue, he will induce ten European leaders, representing the end-time successors to both the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire, to unite temporarily and give their power to him as leader. As we saw in the 1930s, when people become genuinely frightened about their future, they are often willing to trade freedom for security.

A period of growing peace and prosperity will ensue. A great worldwide trading combine will seem to offer incredible profits to international cartels. Later, responding to crises involving both the Middle East and the English-speaking nations, this leader will move with lightning speed and iron determination. Annulling a treaty previously made with the Jewish state, his armies will overwhelm Jerusalem and will take half of the city into captivity (Zechariah 14:2). At the same time, an attack of overwhelming force will be launched on America, Britain, Canada and related nations (for details of the prophecies relating to this event, write for our free booklet, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy).

The end-time manifestation of Babylon will promise what Nimrod promised the human family at the Tower of Babel: unity, security and prosperity. This is what Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great and Caesar Augustus, each in turn, also promised.

The intensifying problems of global fracturing will be countered by a scheme designed to impose both political and religious unity on a worldwide scale. The coming European superpower may actually co-opt existing global institutions to use as a political structure for its own ends. Though important developments will occur in the political sphere, it is in the area of religion that we will see events unprecedented in modern times. Religion will be considered the key to bringing about the common identity required for political unity.

By this time, millions all over the globe will have been caught up in a religious frenzy fed by a charismatic leader working what are apparently great signs and wonders. More concerned with “feeling good” than with true doctrines, they will respond to this leader’s false promise that he is ushering in a golden age.

A powerful war-making apparatus marshaled by the coming European superpower will be billed as the cornerstone of world peace and security. Modern technology will be used to create a police-state that Hitler and Stalin could only have dreamed about. People will be induced to accept such draconian measures as the price of getting rid of terrorism and violent crime.

At first, this system will bring an upsurge in the world economy. A worldwide trading combine, prophesied in Ezekiel 27 and Revelation 18, will be hailed as the key to universal prosperity. Those at the helm of this system will, for a short time, enjoy unparalleled wealth.

Yet fatal flaws in this system, inherent from its beginning, will in time produce widening disparities. The Arab world will be displeased by attempts to coerce it into religious unity with Europe. A powerful leader—called in Daniel 11 the “king of the South”—will then arise, able to bring about temporary unity of much of the Islamic world. Provoked by this leader, Europe will launch a “blitzkrieg” resulting in European occupation of much of the Arab world (Daniel 11:40–43).

This European occupation will deepen suspicion among the eastern nations—already wary of the German-led Europeans. Rumors from the eastern capitals will ultimately cause the Europeans to launch what is intended as a preemptive attack to intimidate the East into submission (Daniel 11:44). Things will not go as well as planned, and the resulting warfare will ultimately cause the nuclear destruction of much of Europe, including Rome itself (Revelation 18:10, 17), by the alliance of eastern powers (Revelation 9:13–18).

As eastern armies cross the Euphrates River to launch an invasion of the European-controlled Middle East, events will spin totally out of control. The ten European rulers who gave power to launch this system will bitterly turn on the church and religious system which failed them (Revelation 17:16–17). Horrifying weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons as well as biological and chemical weapons (Revelation 9:5–6, 18), will be unleashed. Just when it appears that humanity will destroy itself as a result of the confrontation in the Middle East, the living, glorified Christ will return from heaven (Matthew 24:22).

In the context of this most hellish period in the history of mankind’s violent and bloody existence, the real solution to humanity’s problems will be inaugurated. Jesus Christ’s return to this earth is not a fantasy—it is mankind’s only hope.

Transported in vision into that future Day of the Lord, John recorded a marvelous event yet ahead of us, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen” (Revelation 18:2). In the aftermath of that event, Jesus Christ will stand on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem with all of the resurrected saints. The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be removed (Daniel 2:44). The law will go forth from Jerusalem, and all nations will be brought under the government of God (Isaiah 2:2–3).

The Bible records a tale of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. One will be destroyed forever. The other will be created anew as the New Jerusalem which will come down from heaven after the 1,000-year reign of the Messiah, providing the dwelling place for the Father, for Christ and for the “firstfruits” for all eternity (Revelation 21).

The end-time events described in this booklet are real—and will occur within the lifetime of many reading it. Yet Christ offers protection to those who are truly, zealously walking with Him and doing His Work (Luke 21:36; Revelation 3:10).

What about you? Does your “citizenship”—your loyalty and allegiance—reside in Babylon below or in Jerusalem above? Your future depends upon your answer to that question! “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6). The God of heaven will soon set up an enduring kingdom. He now offers us not only His protection and help in the terrible times ahead, but also an entrance into His glorious kingdom and an inheritance that will last forever!

As you watch the world around you increasingly unravel in the years ahead, do not become discouraged. Rather, Jesus Christ exhorts His true followers, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

In spite of calamities on the horizon, always remember that the best news lies yet ahead! “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:37, KJV).

Booklet Category

False Religion

Prophecy

The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy

4uwzvo — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 21:09:03 +0000

The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy 4uwzvo Tue, 03/01/2022 - 21:09

The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy

John H. Ogwyn (1949-2005)

Booklet Media

#Great Britain

#Israel

#National Identity

#Prophecy

#United States

What does the future hold for the world’s British-descended peoples? What really is on the horizon for the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Heads of government do not know. Leading analysts of foreign affairs do not know. Neither do the overwhelming majority of editors and newscasters. But you can know!

Preface: The Lost Master Key—Found!

Astounding? Absolutely, but it is true!

How can you know? The answers to the really big questions in life, including the very future itself, are contained in the world’s perennial best-seller, the Bible. More than a quarter of the Bible is prophecy, mostly for our day and beyond.

How can you understand these prophecies? Perhaps the most vital key to unlocking the mystery of Bible prophecy is the one you will see revealed right here in the pages of this booklet.

Nations such as Egypt and Ethiopia are directly mentioned in your Bible. What about the big nations that are major players on the modern world scene? Could it be possible that end-time prophecies would ignore the United States and Great Britain, and the British-descended peoples of the Commonwealth countries?

The vital key to unlocking many Bible prophecies is the knowledge of the real identity of the British-descended peoples. These peoples are identified in the Bible by the name of their ancient ancestor. Who is that ancient ancestor, and can you prove it?

Why have the British-descended nations come to possess the richest portions of the globe? Why have they enjoyed wealth and power without parallel? Rising quickly to prominence after the year 1800, Great Britain and the United States have clearly dominated the 19th and 20th centuries. But what about the 21st century? Will the British-descended nations continue to play a leading role, or is a change ahead? It is vital that you understand what the future holds for you and for your family. The events of the next few years will absolutely confound the experts. But you can know if you understand how to use the lost master key to understanding prophecy.

Though much has been written about Bible prophecy in recent years, most of these works have been fatally flawed because writers have not known the master key to Bible prophecy!

Simply put, most Old Testament prophecies are directed at the House of Israel. Supposing erroneously that all the references to Israel in prophecy mean the Jewish people and the Jewish state in the Middle East, most Bible commentators have completely missed the point. They do not know the modern-day identity of the descendants of ancient Israel. Yet they could know, for the records of both history and scripture are very clear.

While the Jewish state and the city of Jerusalem do certainly play an important role in end-time prophecies, not all Israelites are Jews. The ancient patriarch Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, was the father of 12 sons. One of those sons, Judah, was the progenitor of the Jewish people. What happened to the descendants of the other sons?

When the 12 tribes returned to the Promised Land after their Egyptian captivity, each settled in a different region. Eventually the tribes split into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom, called Judah, consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and most of the Levites. The remaining ten tribes formed the northern kingdom, called Israel.

In 721bc, after a three-year siege, the Assyrians conquered Samaria, Israel’s capital. They began a systematic deportation of the Israelites to the area north of the Euphrates River, in the area between the Black and Caspian Seas (2 Kings 17).

After swallowing Israel, the Assyrians later advanced into Judah, the southern kingdom. King Hezekiah, on the throne in Jerusalem at the time, cried out to God in a heartfelt way, and God intervened by sending an angel to destroy the Assyrian army of King Sennacherib in 701bc. Judah, thus spared, continued on for about a century before her independence was again threatened.

Then, in 604bc, the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and advanced on Jerusalem. Judah was made a tributary state within the Babylonian Empire. Returning again in 597bc, Nebuchadnezzar took Judah’s King Jehoiakim into captivity and placed Zedekiah upon the throne. Dissatisfied with Zedekiah’s behavior, King Nebuchadnezzar returned approximately ten years later and completely destroyed Jerusalem, burning the temple and taking most of the Jewish population into captivity in Babylon.

Decades passed. Finally, in the fall of 539bc, Babylon fell to the Persian armies of Cyrus the Great. Within a short time, Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jews to return from Babylon and to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel.

The “Lost” Ten Tribes

However, and here is the crucial point that most seem to overlook: The northern ten tribes never returned from their captivity! Settled in an area hundreds of miles from where the Jews were taken more than a century later, the ten tribes of Israel remained completely separate and distinct from the Jews.

What happened to the ten tribes of Israel? History has called them the “lost ten tribes.” Where did they go? The answer to that question is one of history’s most fascinating stories. In fact, the answer to that mystery is the actual key that unlocks most of the Old Testament prophecies!

As you may guess, the identity and location of these ancient peoples reveals who the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand are, as well as the British-descended peoples of South Africa. It explains why they have achieved such national greatness, and what will happen to us near the end of this present age!

The knowledge of the identity of the descendants of ancient Israel is revealed by a close examination of scripture together with the record of secular history. The most highly educated leaders of our modern world are blind to the true facts of this matter. They are blinded by the theory of evolution into completely discounting the Bible as relevant for today. As a result, they fail to see the amazing story laid out in scripture and its relevance for their future.

But it is not just a question of ancient history! Your future, your family’s future, as well as the future of your world hangs on the answer! Where are the “lost ten tribes” of Israel today? As we shall see, this lost master key to unlocking Bible prophecy has been found!

Ezekiel’s Dramatic Vision

A young Jewish captive stood on a riverbank near the southern Mesopotamian city of Babylon. He had been among the thousands of Jews removed from their homeland more than four years earlier by the conquering Babylonian armies under King Nebuchadnezzar.

At age 30, in his fifth year of exile, Ezekiel the priest looked up to behold a remarkable sight. At first it looked like a whirlwind approaching from the northern horizon. Looking intently, he saw that this was no ordinary approaching storm. Brilliant flashes of light emanated from the “whirlwind.” Seeing an increasing glow of light as the “storm” approached, Ezekiel began to identify details within this remarkable whirlwind.

First he saw four strange-looking angelic creatures. They had the general shape of men, but each possessed four wings and four faces. As he continued to stare, Ezekiel noticed gyroscope-like wheels next to each of these creatures. Then he noticed a great crystalline expanse stretched over their heads.

As the whole apparatus came ever closer, Ezekiel was able to discern a brilliant glow of light from above the crystalline expanse. Within this light he could make out the shape of a throne and of a glorious Being seated upon that throne. This, we are told, “was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ezekiel 1:28). At this point, Ezekiel simply fell upon his face.

Suddenly a voice came forth from the throne and told Ezekiel to stand up. The God of Israel proceeded to give him a commission. He was being set as a watchman for the House of Israel (Ezekiel 2:3; 33:7).

This awesome display of glory and majesty deeply impressed Ezekiel with the importance of his task since, for God to reveal Himself in such a dramatic way, there must have been a very important purpose indeed.

Ezekiel’s Commission

Notice that Ezekiel’s commission set him as a watchman not to his own people (the House of Judah), but to the northern ten tribes of the House of Israel! Judah was then only partially in captivity; the destruction of Jerusalem itself lay several years in the future. But the House of Israel had been transported into a strange land, hundreds of miles from Ezekiel, more than 120 years before. What would be the point of warning those people, already captive, of impending invasion and captivity?

Clearly, Ezekiel’s message was not for the Israel of his day! God was not more than a century late in warning them of future punishment! That would make no sense at all. Besides, Ezekiel never had a chance to deliver his message in person to the House of Israel. We thus can see that his message was for the end time, and was written down and preserved for delivery by God’s faithful servants today!

God commissioned Ezekiel to be a watchman. What exactly is a watchman? In ancient times it was customary to place someone in a high tower atop the city wall to serve as lookout when danger threatened. It was the watchman’s job to be alert and vigilant, ever scanning the horizon for signs of an approaching enemy. When he saw evidence of an enemy’s approach, the watchman was to sound a trumpet of alarm.

In the same way, God impressed upon Ezekiel that if he did not sound the alarm God gave him, and calamities overtook the people unaware, God would require their blood at his hands. If, on the other hand, he sounded the alarms but the people failed to respond, they would bear the responsibility themselves and Ezekiel would be guiltless (Ezekiel 33:9).

The House of Israel in Ezekiel’s day was already in captivity. The generation that suffered the captivity had received a final warning more than a century earlier by the emissaries of faithful King Hezekiah of Judah (2 Chronicles 30:1–12). Only a few responded; the nation as a whole laughed the warnings to scorn, and Israel went completely into captivity. Now, more than a century later, Ezekiel was given a similar message of vital importance.

The events that would occur in Jerusalem and Judah were to be a “sign” to the House of Israel (Ezekiel 4:3). Ezekiel’s warnings were for end-time Israel. In fact, we are told that the warnings are to be heard near the time of the day of the Lord (Ezekiel 7:19; 13:5; 30:1–3), the time of God’s intervention at the end of this age. Other prophecies in Ezekiel point to the regathering after the coming of the Messiah. This will be the time when ancient King David will be resurrected and made king forever (Ezekiel 37:21–25). Clearly this will take place at the resurrection of the saints, a time prophesied to occur at Jesus Christ’s return to this earth in power and glory (1 Corinthians 15:50–53; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Ezekiel’s dramatic vision has great meaning for us today. It impresses us with the seriousness and importance of the commission God had for him. Recognizing this, it is vital to understand clearly the whereabouts in today’s world of the descendants of the ancient House of Israel. Once we understand their identity, we must share with them the contents of Ezekiel’s urgent message.

Ezekiel’s message is a message of indictment for sin, a call to repentance, and a promise of future deliverance and restoration. While on the one hand it is a message of dire warning of God’s impending judgment, it is on the other hand a message of glorious hope for the future. In fact, it contains the only real hope there is for these nations. The British-descended nations have lost their moral compass and have seemingly lost their way in the world. Beset with serious problems and challenges at home and abroad, these nations lack both the wisdom and the will to respond.

Having fallen from the pinnacle of world power at the close of World War II, the American and British peoples have seen increasing challenges in the post-war world. But worse than the challenges on the world scene, has been the moral slide from within. In the midst of material prosperity they are beset with moral poverty! There are challenges that lie ahead in the immediate future of which neither people nor their leaders understand.

How can you know for sure that the Bible prophecies relating to Israel relate primarily to the American and British peoples? What do those prophecies really portend for your future? Read on for the amazing answers to these and other questions.

Ancient Promises Are Made

In Genesis 11:26–32 we are introduced to Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham. The rest of the Bible is an outgrowth of God’s dealings with him and the promises He made to Abraham and to his descendants. The promises to Abraham are the basis of nearly all future Bible prophecies!

Abram was born into a family that lived in Ur of the Chaldees, a city in southern Mesopotamia near ancient Babylon. After the death of one of his brothers, Abram, his father, and other family members moved a few hundred miles to the northern Euphrates city of Haran. A while after that, Abram’s father, Terah, died and was buried. In the aftermath, God told Abram, then age 75, to leave the remainder of his family and to go to a land that He would show him. He promised to make him a great nation.

The promise first given in Genesis 12 is quite vague. It simply consists of an undefined land that Abram and his family would afterward be given for an inheritance. Throughout the remainder of Genesis we read a remarkable story of the unfolding of the promises made by God.

The Unfolding Promise to Abraham

In Genesis 12:1–3 we have record of the first promises that God made to Abram. God told him that He would make of him “a great nation,” that he would be blessed and that through him all nations would be blessed, and that God would “bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (v. 3).

After Abram and his wife, along with his nephew Lot, came into the land of Canaan, an incident occurred which led God to further clarify the promises. Abram and Lot both had large herds and flocks and strife had arisen between their herdsmen over grazing rights. Abram settled the issue by offering Lot his choice of grazing land. Lot chose to cross the Jordan River and to graze his herds in the plain of Jordan, near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In the aftermath of the separation between the two, God reiterated to Abram the promises. “And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: ‘Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered” (13:14–16). In Genesis 15 this promise is further amplified. Abram was told that his descendants would be like the number of the stars (v. 5). He was also given the boundaries of his inheritance in the Middle East. In verses 18–21 Abram was told that the land God was giving to his descendants would stretch from the river of Egypt all the way to the Euphrates and include the territory of several peoples who were currently occupying the land.

Father of Many Nations

Abram and his wife Sarai were both advancing in years and had not been able to have children. Yet God had told him that he would have descendants who would inherit a land. For 24 years after they left Haran, Abram and Sarai waited and pondered these promises. Finally, when he was 99 years old, God appeared to Abram once again.

In Genesis 17:6, God promised: “I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.” At this point Abram also learned that he would become the father of many nations (v. 4). God told him that He was changing his name to Abraham, meaning the “father of a multitude,” and Sarai’s name to Sarah, meaning “princess.” Within a year, he was told, Sarah would bear him a son (Genesis 17:19; cf. 18:14). Such a thing seemed too incredible for words, but nevertheless it happened just as God said that it would and Isaac was born at the appointed time.

Actually, Abraham had had a son 14 years before Isaac’s birth, but this son Ishmael was not the son of promise. After ten years of waiting on God’s promises, Sarah had encouraged Abraham to take her maid servant Hagar and have a child by her. He did this and thereby engendered problems and conflicts that have endured to this day.

After Isaac’s birth, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away (Genesis 21:14). Ultimately Ishmael married among his mother’s people, the Egyptians, and had numerous children. The Arab nations take their origin from Ishmael’s sons.

Years later, God came to Abraham once again, this time to put him to the supreme test of his faith. God, who by this time had been personally dealing with Abraham for decades, told him to take his son Isaac and bring him to the mountains of Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice to God. Responding in faith, Abraham did as God asked and was at the point of offering up his heir and only legitimate son when God interceded and told him to stop, and instead offer a ram caught in a nearby thicket, as a substitute for Isaac.

In the aftermath, God reconfirmed the promises to Abraham as having become unconditional. “Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: ‘By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (22:15–18).

There are a couple of key things to notice here. No longer are the promises contingent upon future actions of Abraham and his descendants. Because Abraham has now passed this supreme test of obedience, God has guaranteed the unconditional future fulfillment of His promises.

Additionally, one other detail is now given. Abraham’s descendants would ultimately possess the “gates of their enemies.” A gate is a narrow passage, a means of entrance and exit. This promise means that not only would Abraham’s descendants become many nations, but they would control the means by which their enemies must pass to come and go. We will examine the significance of this remarkable promise later in this booklet.

Promises Both Spiritually and Physically Fulfilled

“But aren’t all of the promises to Abraham fulfilled in Christ?” some might ask. That is a question that must be answered directly from the Bible.

Clearly, according to Galatians 3:26–29, all true Christians are accounted as spiritual children of Abraham and heirs of the promise. The ultimate fulfillment of God’s blessings upon Abraham include the promise that he and his spiritual offspring would inherit the whole earth (Romans 4:13; cf. Matthew 5:5). Abraham was promised an everlasting inheritance (Genesis 17:8), which certainly presupposes the possession of eternal life!

Obviously there was a spiritual aspect to the promises that God made to Abraham! God’s grace was to be extended to all mankind through the one Seed, Christ (cf. Galatians 3:16). The Messiah, descended from Abraham, would be the One through whom the blessing of salvation from sin and the gift of eternal life would become available to all mankind through God’s grace.

However, there was also a physical aspect to the promises to Abraham. The birthright involved promises of national greatness as well as agricultural and mineral wealth. In Genesis 13:16 Abraham was told by God that He would make his seed number like the dust of the ground. Here, clearly, the reference is to Abraham’s numerous physical descendants who would inherit national greatness and possess the gates of their enemies.

The promises to Abraham include both spiritual and physical components. They point toward Jesus the Messiah, but they also point toward the birthright blessings that would be bestowed upon a multitude of his descendants who would become a great nation and a great company of nations. This does not mean that the recipients of these blessings are any better or more special than those who did not receive the blessings. In fact, we see that those who received the physical blessings have, for the most part, squandered them and turned from God, for which they will have to face His judgment.

Israel’s Beginning

Many years after the promises were first made, God reconfirmed them to Abraham’s son Isaac. “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws” (Genesis 26:3–5). The promise to Isaac was based upon Abraham’s obedience to God (cf. v. 24).

Isaac and his wife, Rebecca, had two sons. Jacob and Esau were their names and, in spite of being twins, they were totally different in temperament and character from the very beginning. God had revealed prior to their birth that the older, Esau, was to serve the younger, Jacob (25:23). Yet Jacob, who was a natural wheeler-dealer, was unable to wait for God to give him the birthright blessings. He contrived to trick his father so as to secure this for himself on the timetable he and his mother conceived. God allowed this because it was His purpose for Jacob to receive the promises. Jacob then had to learn some difficult lessons through experience to bring him to repentance.

However, let us notice the birthright blessings that Isaac conferred to Jacob. “Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you!” (27:28–29). Here two details are mentioned for the first time. The first is that Jacob’s descendants would possess great agricultural wealth. The second is that they would obtain rulership over other peoples and nationalities.

After Jacob’s deception of his brother, Isaac and Rebecca told him to travel to the area where his mother’s family lived. There he could find a wife and spend some time until his brother’s anger cooled off. Isaac’s parting words were: “May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly [“multitude,” KJV] of peoples; and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger which God gave to Abraham” (28:3–4).

A short time later, God came to Jacob in a dream and further amplified the promises. In his dream he saw a vast staircase reaching up to heaven and angels ascending and descending. “And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: ‘I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all of the families of the earth shall be blessed” (28:13–14).

Here, for the first time, we learn that the inheritance God promised to Abraham encompassed more than just the land in the Middle East. Jacob’s descendants were to spread abroad from that inheritance and affect the entire world. Their inheritance would bring them into contact with peoples all over the earth.

The story continues in Genesis and we see the lessons that Jacob learned during the time of his exile from Canaan. Finally, as he returned to his homeland, God met him at a location afterward named Peniel. After Jacob had wrestled all night with the Divine Messenger, God told him: “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (32:28). Jacob-Israel was the father of 12 sons, who were the ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel.

The promises to Abraham were being passed down from father to son and had gradually been expanded. There is much more yet to come! Abraham had been told that he would produce “many nations” who would achieve national greatness and also that he would give rise to a kingly line. This promise was now divided among two of Jacob’s 12 sons. Notice the clear delineation given in 1 Chronicles 5:1–2: “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel he was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright; yet Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came a ruler, although the birthright was Joseph’s.”

Judah was clearly given the scepter promise of a line of kings culminating in the Messiah who would be king of kings. But take note! The birthright promises of national greatness went not to the Jews, but to the descendants of Joseph. Understanding this is the master key that begins to open up everything else!

Ephraim and Manasseh Receive the Birthright

Let us look further at how the birthright promises were amplified for the descendants of Joseph. An important part of this story occurred a short time before the death of Jacob-Israel. By this time he and his entire family were living in Egypt where Joseph was serving as Administrator directly under Pharaoh. Joseph came to visit his elderly and infirm father and brought with him his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. A little-understood ceremony occurred during this visit.

In Genesis 48:5, Israel informed Joseph that he was adopting Ephraim and Manasseh that they would be counted as his and therefore be counted among the tribes of Israel. Thus Joseph was given a double portion. After Joseph brought his sons close, Israel embraced them, proceeded to lay hands on them and set them apart for special blessing.

At this time a remarkable event occurred. Joseph had purposely arranged the boys so that the older, Manasseh, was standing on Israel’s right side and the younger, Ephraim, was standing on his left side. This was so that he would place his right hand, signifying the greater blessing, on Manasseh and the left on Ephraim. Israel, however, crossed his hands and put the right hand on Ephraim and the left on Manasseh. When Joseph saw this he tried to correct what he perceived as a mistake on the part of his nearly-blind father. Israel resisted, however, and explained that this crossing of his hands was purposeful.

Israel told Joseph that his older son Manasseh was to become a great people, but that Ephraim was to become a multitude or company of nations (v. 19). Here we find that a great nation and also a great company of nations were to spring from the descendants of Joseph. They were the ones who receive the birthright blessings of national greatness. This included possession of strategic check points through which their enemies would have to pass, vast agricultural and mineral wealth, and status as world powers that would exercise dominance over other nations. Since God had promised that they would be a blessing to other nations, we know that their dominance as world powers would be exercised in a benign way overall.

Is there historical record of these promises being fulfilled? Before we examine that, look at a few more details that unfold in the book of Genesis. A short time after adopting Ephraim and Manasseh and conveying the birthright blessings upon them, Israel called all of his sons to his bedside. He was at the end of his long life and wanted to give his last admonition and blessing to his family.

Notice what he told them. “And Jacob called his sons and said, ‘Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days” (49:1). Israel’s prophecy that followed was not for his day or for the time when his descendants would come out of Egypt and enter into the Promised Land. It was for the end-times! Clearly at the end-time the descendants of Israel were still to exist as separate, identifiable tribes.

Notice his words for Joseph. “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall” (v. 22). This is a poetic allusion to a people who would multiply and spread out all over. After all, Joseph’s sons were ultimately to give rise to a great nation and a great company of nations. Israel therefore foresaw them as a great colonizing people. He also conveyed the blessings of heaven above and of the deep that lies beneath. This implies great mineral wealth (blessings of the deep) as well as blessings of weather that would provide great agricultural wealth (blessings of heaven above).

But were these fabulous promises ever fulfilled for the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh? The very authenticity of your Bible as the word of God stands or falls on that point!

After they left Egypt, the tribes of Israel lived for centuries in the Middle Eastern territory that God had promised. There is no record of Ephraim and Manasseh ever becoming a great nation and company of nations prior to Israel’s captivity. They never became a blessing to all the nations of the world before they went into Assyrian captivity in the eighth century before Christ. Clearly, the fulfillment of the promises that God made to Abraham and reconfirmed to his descendants did not occur before ten-tribed Israel disappeared from the pages of your Bible and then from the pages of secular history.

How these promises were yet fulfilled, as we shall see, is “the rest of the story!”

Israel’s Captivity and Lost Identity

Before the children of Israel ever entered the Promised Land, Moses was inspired by God to warn them of the future. The promises of God were sure, but the timing of their fulfillment was up to God and depended upon Israel’s conduct.

In Leviticus 26:1–2 God, through Moses, warned the Israelites: “You shall not make idols for yourselves… You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord.” He went on to tell them: “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit” (vv. 3–4). In the following verses God detailed blessings of agricultural bounty and peace that would come upon the nation if it was faithful. In verse 12 He concluded His promised blessings by stating: “I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.”

Just as there were blessings for obedience, however, there were serious consequences for disobedience. If Israel went into idolatry and forgot God’s Sabbaths, then God would punish the nation for its actions. In verses 16 and 17 He detailed the punishments of diseases and of enemy incursions into their territory which would result. What would happen, if, after repeated punishment, Israel persisted in rebellion against God and His laws? Verse 18 tells us: “And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” The Hebrew word here rendered “seven times” can refer either to length of time or to intensity of punishment.

Seven Times Punishment

In Daniel 4 we read of a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had. In the dream he was told that he would be punished for his pride by losing both his kingdom and his sanity. In this dream he was told that “seven times” would pass before his restoration. In the historical fulfillment of this dream, it is apparent that the seven times were a period of seven literal years.

What were the seven times of Israel’s punishment promised in Leviticus 26:18? If this indicated a duration of time, how long was it to last? Understanding the significance of Israel’s seven times punishment opens up history to far deeper meaning than you have probably ever understood before.

First, let us answer the question concerning the length of the “seven times.” How many days would “seven times” be? In Revelation 11 and 12 we find keys to understanding this.

Revelation 11:2–3 equates two periods of time: 42 months and 1,260 days. This is simple to understand, as there are exactly 1,260 days in 42 months of 30 days. In Revelation 12:6 we find another mention of 1,260 days, but this time that figure is paralleled in verse 14 by the term, “time, times, and half a time.” We have already seen that 1,260 days is equated with 42 months, which is exactly three-and-a-half years. Clearly then, the Bible equates “time, times and half a time” with a three-and-a half-year period of 1,260 days.

“Seven times” is double the length of “time, times, and half a time” (or three-and-a-half years). Therefore, seven times would represent a duration of 2,520 days (twice the length of the 1,260 days). How long a period of punishment upon Israel would these 2,520 days represent in Bible prophecy? To understand this, look at another incident of punishment on Israel. Numbers 13 and 14 give the account of Moses sending 12 spies, one from each tribe, to investigate the Promised Land. Ten of the spies brought back an evil report that discouraged the people and caused them to refuse to enter the land. God was greatly displeased with the people’s lack of faith. Notice the consequences that followed: “According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection [‘breach of promise’ KJV]” (Numbers 14:34).

Israel’s disobedience led to a 40-year delay in entering the Promised Land and inheriting the promises God had made to their ancestors. The 40 years of punishment were figured on the principle of a day for a year. A similar point is made in Ezekiel 4 about punishment on Judah and on Israel. In this account, the prophet Ezekiel was told to lie upon his left side each day for 390 days to symbolize the duration of God’s punishment upon Israel. Then, he was told to turn and to lie upon his right side each day for 40 days in order to show the punishment of Judah. Next, Ezekiel was told: “I have laid on you a day for each year” (v. 6). In other words, once again a day equaled a year in the fulfillment of certain Bible prophecies.

With each day representing a year in the fulfillment of Israel’s punishment, seven times would represent 2,520 years. What is the full significance of this period of time? We will shortly see the amazing answer. But first, let us examine why Israel went into captivity at all.

Why the Ten Tribes Went into Captivity

In Leviticus 26, God made it plain that if Israel began to worship idols and to break His Sabbath, He would work through punishments to get their attention. Fulfillment of this prophecy is seen throughout the book of Judges as Israel lapsed into sin and God allowed terrorist raids by surrounding nations to disrupt Israel’s peace and its economy. Sometimes these nations actually brought Israel under direct rule for years. This cycle continued for more than three centuries before the monarchy was established.

After the death of King Solomon the kingdom of Israel split into two totally separate nations. The northern ten tribes chose Jeroboam the son of Nebat as their king, while Judah remained loyal to Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. Shortly after the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam made a decision that affected the ten tribes of Israel for the remainder of their history.

We read this crucial story in 1 Kings 12. Jeroboam began to fear that the ten tribes would, in the future, long for reunion with Judah. He decided that going up to worship God at Jerusalem during the festival seasons each year would lead to nostalgia for “the good old days.” He feared a future yearning for the time when they had been one nation under David’s dynasty in Jerusalem. This, he believed, would lead eventually to displacing himself or his descendants.

As he pondered this problem, Jeroboam came up with what he considered the solution. He called the people together and announced some changes. To make things more convenient, he told them that henceforth they would have two worship sites in northern Israel from which to choose. This way they would no longer have to go all the way to Jerusalem. He established his new sites of worship at the city of Dan in the north and at Bethel in the south. At each location a golden calf would be the object of worship. Additionally, the Levitical priesthood would be replaced by men loyal to Jeroboam and his new religion. We are told that, in fact, Jeroboam made “priests of the lowest of the people” (v. 31). As if all of this were not enough, he also introduced a change in the timing of God’s annual festivals. The Feast of Tabernacles, which came in the seventh month of God’s sacred calendar, was postponed until the eighth month.

Throughout the remaining 200 years of northern Israel’s existence as an independent nation, many dynasties came and went. Regardless of who was king, however, we are told over and over that “he departed not from the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who taught Israel to sin” (cf. 1 Kings 15:34; 16:19; 2 Kings 3:3; 10:29; 13:2; 6, 11; 14:24; 15:18; 24, 28; 17:22). The ten tribes totally disregarded God’s admonitions to their ancestors through Moses. They worshiped idols, violated God’s Sabbaths and, in general, simply disregarded God’s laws.

The consequences were inevitable. God had warned centuries earlier, through Moses, that a “seven times” punishment would come upon them if they persisted in disobedience. Finally, in the mid-eighth century, armies of the mighty Assyrian Empire invaded Israel.

Israel’s King Menahem bought a respite by giving Assyrian King Pul a large sum of money to withdraw. A few years later, however, during the reign of one of Menahem’s successors, Pekah, the Assyrians returned under Tiglathpileser. This time the Assyrians subjugated much of the eastern and northern part of the kingdom. Several tribes, including much of Reuben, Gad and Naphtali, were taken into captivity and transported to Assyria. During the reign of Pekah’s successor, Hoshea, things worsened. The Assyrians returned under their new king Shalmaneser and exacted tribute from the remnant of Israel. Then they returned a few years later and laid siege to Samaria. After a three-year siege, Samaria fell. The Assyrians then began to deport the population of ten-tribed Israel en masse.

Israel’s Last Chance

This deportation took years to accomplish. Before it progressed very far, a righteous king came to the throne in Judah, the southern kingdom. This king, Hezekiah, assumed complete authority in 714bc, upon the death of his father Ahaz. He had been joint ruler with his father for several years, but did not have independent authority until his father’s death. He, in sharp contrast to his father, was a man who sought with his whole heart to follow God. He initiated a revival in Judah at the very start of his sole reign. He opened the temple in Jerusalem, and called upon the people to repent and rededicate themselves to the worship of the true God.

Hezekiah told the people: “For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him… Therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to astonishment, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes. For indeed, because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us” (2 Chronicles 29:6–10).

This revival under Hezekiah not only offered Judah a reprieve from the sword of the Assyrians, which was destroying the kingdom of Israel just north of them, it was also a last chance for the northern ten tribes to avert complete exile. Notice what King Hezekiah did: “And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel… So they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem, since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed manner” (2 Chronicles 30:1, 5). Hezekiah’s messengers warned the remaining inhabitants of the northern kingdom: “Now do not be stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord… For if you return to the Lord, your brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them captive, so that they might come back to this land” (vv. 8–9).

What was Israel’s response? “So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. Nevertheless some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem” (vv. 10–11). By and large Israel ignored King Hezekiah’s warning and his call to repentance the final warning they were to receive. In the years immediately following, the Assyrians completely depopulated northern Israel and brought in people of Babylonian stock to resettle there. These newcomers were later known as Samaritans, taking their name from Israel’s capital city.

Israel had begun an odyssey that would not conclude for many centuries 2,520 years would pass before the descendants of Israel would begin to receive the birthright blessings promised their ancestors. For 2,520 years a year for a day they would experience God’s delay of promise.

Israel’s Lost Identity

In Exodus 31:12–17, God instructed Moses that His Sabbaths were to be a sign between Him and Israel forever. A sign is something that identifies. The Sabbath is a perpetual reminder of who God is and who His people are. As long as Israel kept the Sabbath, they maintained their identity.

To this day, the people of Judah have maintained their identity, regardless of what far-flung corner of the world in which they may live. They have retained the sign of the Sabbath and have never lost sight of who they are.

Israel, on the other hand, from the time of King Jeroboam has abandoned God’s Sabbaths and substituted its own days of worship. As a result, captive Israel did not stand out as different from the surrounding nations and peoples. Those whom they met did not associate them with the Jews, and eventually most Israelites forgot their true origin.

Many of the customs that Israel carried into captivity were borrowed from the pagan nations around them. At the time of Israel’s Assyrian captivity, the prophet Micah was in Judah. He warned Israel of their impending punishment and why it was to come. “For the statutes of Omri are kept; all the works of Ahab’s house are done; and you walk in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation and your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people” (Micah 6:16).

Who was Omri, and what were his statutes? What did this have to do with Israel’s lost identity?

Captive Israelites Become Known as Cimmerians

In captivity, Israel lost even its national name. Having abandoned their sign of identity that God established, the Israelites have become lost to most secular historians. However, they were certainly not lost to God. Notice the message he inspired the prophet Amos to record in the years prior to Israel’s captivity. “‘Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,’ says the Lord. ‘For surely I will command, and will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground'” (Amos 9:8–9).

In 1 Kings 16, we read of Omri and of his rise to power. He overthrew his predecessor, Zimri, and established a powerful dynasty. Though he only reigned 12 years, he established the capital city of Samaria and put laws in place that guided the nation through the rest of its history. His role as lawgiver was so established that 150 years after his death, and many dynasties later, the prophet Micah still referred to Israel as keeping “the statutes of Omri.” Clearly rejecting the laws that God had given through Moses, the House of Israel chose instead to keep the laws enacted by Omri. “Omri,” we are told by scripture, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all who were before him” (v. 25).

Plainly, then, the statutes of Omri included pagan religious practices. His son Ahab was married to Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal priest-king of the Baal worshipping Sidonians. Though many of the outward trappings of Baal worship were later eliminated by a subsequent king, Jehu, Israel never really returned to God.

Notice the comments of Langer’s Encyclopedia of World History regarding the extent of Omri’s influence. “Omri established a long-lived dynasty. He built a new capital at Samaria and renewed alliances with Tyre… He also reconquered Moab as we learn from the Mesha inscription. Omri was evidently a strong king. The Assyrians called Israel after his name, Bit Omri (Khumri)” (1968 edition, p. 44).

The history of the ancient world, apart from what is recorded in scripture, comes down to us in the writings and monuments of the great empires of antiquity and in the writings of the Greek historians. The Assyrians, in their monuments, did not use the name “Israel,” but rather referred to the “Khumri.” This is the name by which Israel was known in captivity. This name, and variants of it in the languages of neighboring peoples, is the name by which the people of Israel are identified in secular history.

The people who were identified on Assyrian monuments as Khumri were called in the Babylonian language Gimmirra (or Gimiri). The Greek geographers such as Herodotus called them Cimmerians. Thus, the names by which captive Israel is identified in secular history are the names by which others called them, and those names varied in spelling and pronunciation according to the language of the writer.

Israel’s Migrations

What happened to the Israelites who were taken captive by the Assyrians? The Bible tells us that they were settled near the River Gozan and in the cities of the Medes. Gozan was a tributary of the northern Euphrates River. The cities of the Medes were in the area just south of Armenia, between the Black and Caspian Seas.

The apocryphal book of 2 Esdras, written a century or so prior to the time of Christ, records the tradition that had been preserved among the Jews. “Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land… and he [Shalmaneser] carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt… And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river” (13:40–43).

To say that the migrating Israelites followed the “narrow passages of the river” simply means that they went northward through the narrow mountain passes of the headwaters of the Euphrates. This took them north of the Caucasus Mountains and on to the northern shore of the Black Sea. This is exactly where history places the Cimmerians, who later traveled up the Danube and Rhine River basins into northwestern Europe.

Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary locates the Cimmerii “near the Palus Maeotis” (p. 149). Palus Maeotis was the name the ancient Greeks gave to the large lake at the northern tip of the Black Sea, now called the Sea of Azov. From this area some of the Cimmerians migrated directly up the river system into northwestern Europe, while others invaded Asia Minor, and after being pushed out also went up into northern Europe.

Regarding the Cimmerii-Israelites’ entrance into northwestern Europe, M. Guizot in The History of France from Earliest Times to 1848 states: “From the seventh to the fourth century B.C., a new population spread over Gaul, not at once, but by a series of invasions, of which the two principal took place at the two extremes of that epoch. They called themselves Kymrians or Kimrians… the name of a people whom the Greeks placed on the western bank of the Black Sea and in the Cimmerian peninsula, called to this day Crimea” (p. 16). Called Gauls or Celts by the Romans, these people spread through what is modern France and into the British Isles.

The heaviest periods of this migration into northwestern Europe were shortly after the original Assyrian invasions, and again almost 400 years later. In 331bc, Alexander the Great defeated the Medes and the Persians. Those Israelites who were still in the ancient area of the Medes were now free to leave. Interestingly, this marks 390 years from the fall of Samaria to the overthrow of the Medes (721bc–331bc) the exact period that Ezekiel had prophesied for the House of Israel in Ezekiel 4:5.

Another ancient name by which the exiled Israelites were known is “Scythian.” A vast area of what is today the Eurasian plain of Russia was anciently called Scythia. Various peoples inhabited this huge area, including many tribes of exiled Israelites. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, “the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name they give to all Scythians” (The Persian Wars, VII, 64). The word Sacae or Sakae is ultimately derived from Isaac, ancestor of the Israelites. This is the true origin of the names Scotland, Saxon and Scandinavia.

The Scots preserve the story of their Scythian origins in the most famous document in Scottish history, the Declaration of Arbroath. This declaration was written in 1320 and signed by Robert the Bruce and his nobles. In it is the statement that the Scots “journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea… they came twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea [ca. 250bc], to their home in the west where they still live today.” The original of this ancient letter, called by many “Scotland’s most precious possession,” is on display in a glass case in the Register House in Edinburgh. To the parchment is attached the seals of the 25 subscribing Scottish nobles.

Thus we see that the ten tribes of Northern Israel were uprooted from their homeland in the eighth century before Christ, and transported to a different area by their captors. Losing their identity, they became known to history by a variety of names. Cymri, Celts and Scyths are but a few. Today, guided by ancient records, we can trace the migrations of these peoples from the Black Sea to the British Isles and northwestern Europe.

How does all of this fit in with the prophecies of your Bible? Read on for the startling answers.

The Birthright Promises Are Fulfilled

Anciently, God made remarkable promises to Abraham and his descendants. We have already seen that the northern ten tribes were uprooted from their homes and that they ultimately migrated into northwestern Europe. What became of the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham?

Look at the remarkable way in which God has intervened in history to accomplish His purpose and to fulfill His word.

Seven prophetic times 2,520 years went by from the time of Samaria’s fall and Israel’s captivity in 721bc. This brings us to 1800ad and the time when Abraham’s descendants would begin coming into possession of the birthright promises. The remarkable story that unfolded in the history of the British-descended people after 1800 is astounding.

To fully understand what happened and to put it into perspective, let us briefly look at the history of Europe. By the close of the 11th century after Christ, most of the European migrations were completed and nations were mostly in the areas in which we find them today. The Israelites had arrived, in waves of migration extending over centuries, in the new lands that they were destined to inherit. After all, God had anciently told Jacob that his descendants would spread abroad to the north, the west, the east, and the south (Genesis 28:14).

Throughout the ten centuries from Rome’s collapse until the 15th century, Europe was totally dominated by the Catholic church and was in the throes of poverty, ignorance and warfare. Much of this period has traditionally been called the “Dark Ages” by historians. In the last half of the 15th century, three milestone events took place. The first was the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. This brought an influx of scholars and Greek manuscripts of the New Testament into Western Europe. Secondly, in 1456, Johannes Gutenberg perfected the use of moveable type and the printing industry was born. This made possible the widespread diffusion of knowledge. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sighted land, thus beginning the unbroken connection between Europe and the new world of the Americas.

At this same time, England finally emerged from the internal strife of the War of the Roses. At last a stable government emerged, under the Tudor dynasty of Henry VII. Over the next century a remarkable transformation began to occur in England. Literacy spread, Catholic control was overthrown, and the tiny island nation began to develop into a sea-power.

The year 1588 was a benchmark in England’s history. Spain had set out to conquer England and restore it to the fold of the Catholic church. In pursuance of this goal, a vast Armada set sail from Spain. Shattered by storm winds off the coast of England, the Armada was defeated and little England was saved.

Notice what Sir Winston Churchill, in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, wrote. “But to the English people as a whole the defeat of the Armada came as a miracle. For 30 years the shadow of Spanish power had darkened the political scene. A wave of religious emotion filled men’s minds. One of the medals struck to commemorate the victory bears the inscription ‘Afflavit Deus et dissipantur‘ ‘God blew and they were scattered.’ Elizabeth and her seamen knew how true this was” (vol. II, p. 131).

This miraculous victory guaranteed that England would not come back under the domination of the Papacy, and it set the stage for future religious freedom in England. An awareness of God’s role in English history fueled a newfound interest in the Bible, resulting in the translation and widespread dissemination of the Bible during the reign of Queen Elizabeth’s successor, King James I.

Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, English sailors and explorers set out across the globe. This marked the beginnings of England as a sea power and set the stage for future commercial and economic greatness.

Still, when 1800 came, England and her former American colonies, the fledgling United States, possessed only a small portion of the world’s land and wealth. In Europe, Napoleon was attempting to put together a vast continental empire with France at its head. Instead of that effort being successful, however, something altogether different occurred.

Over the following decades, England emerged in possession of the vast British Empire. It was the largest that the world had ever seen. Over one quarter of the world’s land and people were under the British flag by the end of the 19th century. The United States, in 1800 still clinging to the eastern seacoast, had completely spanned the North American continent within five decades. The most powerful company of nations, the British Empire, and themost powerful single nation, the United States, emerged right on schedule. The year 1800 marked the time when the 2,520 years of withholding the birthright concluded.

The British Empire Emerges

“How had the British done it? How, in the first place, did a peripheral island rise from primitive squalor to world domination? And how did they, between the [world] wars, still manage to keep their rickety empire together with little visible effort?” (The Europeans, p. 47). This was the question posed by author Luigi Barzini and it has been echoed by many.

While other nations set out with a cohesive plan to conquer vast stretches of territory and to build an empire, the British, it has been said, stumbled into theirs in a fit of absentmindedness. How did such a remarkable transformation come about?

Canada, a vast trove of agricultural and mineral wealth, came almost unbidden into the British Empire. After England’s victory over France in the Seven Years War (1756–63), many in Parliament argued against even accepting Canada from France, warning that “its scanty trade in beaver skins would not offset the burden of defense and administration…” (A History of England and the British Empire, by Hall & Albion, p. 463). In fact, “Halifax [Nova Scotia] was the only community in America founded by direct action of the British government” (p. 456).

Australia and New Zealand were no less thrust upon Britain as part of the empire. Of Australia, it has been said that the 1851 discovery of gold “precipitated a colony into a nation” (p. 664). The population jumped from 250,000 to almost a million in a little over a decade. As for New Zealand: “The home government long resisted the efforts to bring New Zealand under the British flag… So New Zealand went its lawless way until the actual planting of regular English settlers necessitated more definite control” (p. 664).

Over the course of the 19th century, Great Britain came into the possession of territory in every far-flung corner of the earth. Among these possessions were virtually all of the strategic sea-gates. Possessing the “gates of their enemies” was one of the blessings that God had promised to Abraham on behalf of his descendants. These narrow passages, through which sea traffic had to pass, were of inestimable value, both in terms of commercial value of trade and for security purposes during the two world wars of the 20th century. British control of the Suez Canal and the Straits of Gibraltar as well as of the strategic Isle of Malta was crucial to Allied control of the Mediterranean during World War II.

With Australia, New Zealand and Canada, Great Britain came into possession of some of the richest agricultural land on earth. The vast fields of grain and the innumerable herds of sheep and cattle represented a fulfillment of God’s ancient promises to Abraham. In addition, there was the vast mineral wealth of Canada, Australia, and South Africa. Britain itself came to control much of the Middle Eastern oil reserves. Her possessions and pipelines there helped provide the Allies the oil that was needed to fight World War II.

Despite committing their share of reprehensible acts on the world stage, the British also left an influence that has produced great benefits for the world, just as God anciently prophesied that it would. It was the British Navy that wiped out the international slave trade in the early 19th century. The British and Foreign Bible Society, headquartered in London, was responsible for the Bible being translated into virtually every language and made available for the first time to peoples all over the earth.

Throughout the empire itself, British rule was not enforced by huge occupying armies. In fact, during the 19th century, the British army was quite small. It was called “the thin red line.” In vast India, inhabited by scores of millions even in the 19th century, it was the British civil service, never more than several hundred, that ruled. They administered justice, collected taxes, and enforced the laws. “They alone came into direct contact with the native population… they worked hard and efficiently… corruption was unknown among them, and they had triumphantly upheld justice, peace, and order for several decades” (p. 738).

Tiny little England emerged, practically overnight, to rule the greatest, most extensive empire that the world had ever seen. That empire developed into a great company of nations held together by allegiance to a common crown. Where else can anyone point to the fulfillment of the ancient promise that Jacob claimed for his grandson Ephraim? Clearly, God had kept His word to Abraham!

The Throne of David

God made a remarkable promise to King David of ancient Israel. Speaking through Nathan the prophet, God told David: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:12–16).

God explained to David that while he might punish his descendants for their sins, he would not remove the kingdom from their line as he had done with Saul. What happened to that line of kings? History records that King Zedekiah, a descendant of David, was the last king to sit upon the throne of Judah in Jerusalem. In 586bc Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Zedekiah captive to Babylon, burned the temple, and destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Notice the statement in 2 Kings 25:7: “Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put out the eyes of Zedekiah… and took him to Babylon.”

Did God’s promise to David fail?

For the rest of the story, notice the prophecy that God inspired Ezekiel to record in Ezekiel 17. It starts out by posing a riddle that describes an eagle coming to a large cedar tree and cropping off the topmost branch. This small branch was taken to the “city of merchants” (v. 4). What is this riddle describing? Verse 12 tells us: “Say now to the rebellious house: Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, Indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes, and led them with him to Babylon.”

That is not the end of the story, however. God went on to tell Ezekiel in verses 22 and 23: “I will take also one of the highest branches of the high cedar and set it out. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and will plant it on a high and prominent mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell.”

We have already seen that the “top branch” of the cedar symbolized Judah’s last king, Zedekiah. A twig coming out from that branch would be one of his children. As we have also seen, his sons were killed. This “tender” twig must clearly refer to one of his daughters! God talks of her being taken to a high mountain (used in Bible prophecy to symbolize a nation) where she would be “planted” and would grow into a great tree. This shows that she would marry and produce offspring and that the dynasty would continue! Also note, while David’s line had been reigning over Judah, it would now be “replanted” ruling over Israel.

Irish history records the remainder of this story. It tells of the prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch coming to Ireland after the fall of Judah with a young princess and the coronation stone, called in Gaelic lia fail. In ancient Irish records, the princess was named Tea Tephi. She married the son of the High King of Ireland. Their descendants reigned from Tara in Ireland for many centuries. Later, in the days of Kenneth McAlpine, they transferred their place of rule to Scone in Scotland. This same dynasty continues on down to today in the person of Queen Elizabeth II, a direct descendant of Tea Tephi and her husband. God has fulfilled his promises to King David just as He said!

The United States and the Blessings of Manasseh

What of the United States of America? Are the American people also truly descended from ancient Israel? Look at the plain record of history.

The first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States was Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. A few years later the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries settlers from the British Isles flowed into what became the United States. Actually, as Professor David Fischer points out in his important book, Albion’s Seed, there were four main waves of immigration during those two centuries to the future United States. These waves of migration had their origin in specific parts of the British Isles and came to particular areas of the American colonies.

New England, for instance, was settled primarily by immigrants from East Anglia. Certain parishes of this south-eastern part of England were almost emptied of population between 1629 and 1641, as whole family groups migrated en masse. “Today, East Anglia seems very rural by comparison with other English regions. But in the early 17th century, it was the most densely settled and highly urbanized part of England, and had been so for many centuries” (Albion’s Seed, p. 43).

Overwhelmingly, the immigrants who settled the United States before the Civil War came from northwestern Europe. Most were from either the British Isles or certain parts of northern Germany. These immigrants established the character of the American nation and, until recently, have provided most of the nation’s leadership. Even some whose ancestors immigrated later from other parts of Europe may well have Israelitish background. After all, the prophecy was made by Amos that the House of Israel would be sifted through the nations like corn through a sieve, but not a grain would be lost (Amos 9:9).

Beginning in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, the United States began a rapid territorial expansion that led to its spanning the continent within one generation. The territory acquired by purchase from Napoleon, at less than a nickel an acre, included the richest farmland on earth the American Midwest.

Because of its combination of agricultural and mineral wealth, America was destined to lead the world in per capita wealth. Whether in grain and cattle, or in its coal, iron, and petroleum production, America has had matchless bounty. As an example, during World War II the East Texas oil field alone produced more oil than the combined production of all the Axis powers. The prophecy of aged Israel to his grandson Manasseh, that his descendants would become the greatest single nation, has certainly been fulfilled in the United States of America.

Additionally, with the acquisition of the Panama Canal and various island dependencies gained in the latter 19th century, the United States has also possessed the gates of its enemies. The United States, in combination with Great Britain, controlled virtually every strategic passageway on earth through most of the 19th and 20th centuries.

At their pinnacles, the American and British nations have possessed or controlled an overwhelming share of the world’s wealth. There are simply no other nations that can even compare with the wealth and power that has been exercised by the British-desended peoples.

With great blessings also come great responsibilities, however. In addition, there are particular dangers for these nations of which they are warned in that book which became ubiquitous throughout the English-speaking world the Bible.

A Warning for the Modern Nations of Israel

Moses was anciently inspired of God to set down a reminder for these people in the midst of their fabulous wealth and bounty: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land… a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing… Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments… lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them… when your heart is lifted up… then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth'” (Deuteronomy 8:7–17). These nations are admonished: “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (v. 18).

One of the great dangers of wealth and plenty is a self-centered, materialistic outlook. Instead of being the most thankful of peoples, they have become the most self-indulgent.

This national greatness was not achieved because of innate superiority. Rather, their possession of the fairest portions of the earth is the direct result of faithful Abraham’s obedience and God’s promises to Him. Moses reminded ancient Israel: “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers” (Deuteronomy 7:7–8).

Israel was called to be a holy nation to God. Today, all nations have direct access to God’s word in an unparalleled way. Yet the conduct of our people and our leaders falls far short of what God enjoins upon us. In the midst of plenty we are unthankful and disobedient to the God who blessed us. Just as God dealt with ancient Israel, so also will He deal with us today.

The United States and Great Britain, and all nations, are on a rendezvous with God’s judgment!

The Coming Restoration

In 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s “Diamond Jubilee,” one of Britain’s best-loved poets struck a somber note. The British Empire was at its height. In that context Rudyard Kipling wrote Recessional, a poem that was strikingly prophetic. “God of our fathers, known of old / Lord of our far flung battle line / Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold / Dominion over palm and pine / Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget lest we forget!” He went on to add: “Lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with Ninevah and Tyre! Judge of the Nations, spare us yet / Lest we forget lest we forget!”

A century later, the American and British-descended peoples have forgotten their God. God’s direct warning to these forgetful nations thunders down through time: “Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish” (Deuteronomy 8:19).

How have such blessed nations forgotten God and His laws? The most fundamental national building block, the family unit, has been shattered by divorce and illegitimacy. We have “gay pride” parades in the streets of major cities from London to San Francisco to Sydney and Toronto. Abortion is a silent holocaust that has taken the lives of millions of unborn babies. Violence escalates until people draw back with fear at the thought of walking the streets after dark. Greed, materialism, and immorality have seemingly been woven into the national fabric.

The messages of the ancient prophets are as descriptive of America and Britain’s condition as any newscast. “Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward” (Isaiah 1:4).

There is even a lack of shame at national conduct. “The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves” (Isaiah 3:9).

The Watchman’s Message

As we saw earlier in this booklet, God commissioned the ancient prophet Ezekiel as a watchman to the House of Israel. “So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear the word from My mouth and warn them for me” (Ezekiel 33:7). What is God’s message to modern Israel, preserved for our day through the pen of the prophet Ezekiel?

“Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations!… You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made” (Ezekiel 22:2–4). In addition to violence and idolatry, God inspired Ezekiel to indict Israel for immorality, including adultery and incest (vv. 9–11). Also, he talks about the breakdown of the family structure and the grinding down of the needy and defenseless (v. 7). Additionally, God thunders: “You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths” (v. 8).

The book of Ezekiel contains an indictment of national sins, a call to repentance, and a proclamation of God’s impending judgment. It also goes on beyond the coming judgment to look forward to a time of national repentance and of restoration after Christ’s return.

Collectively these peoples have turned further and further away from God in their actions, even while still calling themselves “Christian nations.” These national sins are an affront to Almighty God, Who has poured out the choicest blessings of Heaven on them!

There are coming on the British-descended peoples, the modern-day House of Israel, problems that we can scarcely imagine. God declares that He will “break the staff of bread” (Ezekiel 4:16). He speaks of a time of famine and desolation when the cities will be laid waste (12:20). As unthinkable as this may seem to modern Americans, Canadians and Britons, God Almighty says that such things are coming!

A great supra-national union in Europe, even now shaping up, will become the seventh and final revival of the old Roman Empire. This system, according to Revelation 13 and 17, will come to dominate the entire world for a brief period of time. It is this powerful European superpower which will ultimately attack and subjugate the American and British peoples. It will also occupy the Jewish state, called Israel, in the Middle East.

People are complacent and materialistic. They have forgotten their Maker and ignored His instruction book, the Holy Bible. Yes, there is a day of reckoning coming! Most of you reading this booklet can expect to see it come in your lifetime, and it will profoundly impact your life!

There is a way of escape for you and your family, however. “‘Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?’ says the Lord God, ‘and not that he should turn from his ways and live?… Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,’ says the Lord God. ‘Repent, and turn from all your transgression, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn and live!'” (Ezekiel 18:23, 30–32).

God’s desire is for repentance, not punishment. For many, however, God will only get their attention through severe national punishment. Many simply will not pay attention to a message of warning until their world comes crashing down upon them. What about you?

God’s Church is taking Ezekiel’s message of warning and of hope to the modern-day House of Israel. It is vital that you understand what God’s word says is in store and then that you act upon that understanding!

Unfolding Events of the Years Ahead

Coming threats of catastrophic economic and social collapse will set the stage for some soon-coming events, according to Bible prophecy. In answer to growing fears, there will suddenly emerge onto the world scene a powerful and charismatic leader in Europe. In alliance with a religious leader who will ignite an emotional mass hysteria through what the scripture terms “lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9), this military-political leader will use deceit to achieve great power. He will lead a revived Holy Roman Empire, called in scripture “Babylon the Great” (Revelation 17; 18).

This European union of church and state will promise universal prosperity and will exercise worldwide economic dominance for a short while. Ezekiel 27, using the figure of the ancient commercial city of Tyre, speaks of this global economic combine which will include nations of Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia along with Israel and Judah (v. 17). Portions of Ezekiel 27 are paraphrased or quoted in Revelation 18 where the end-time system, called Babylon the Great, is described.

The British-descended nations will not prosper for long in connection with this system, however. In fact, they will ultimately be overpowered and destroyed by it militarily. Prior to military attack and occupation, devastating weather problems, combined with internal civil strife (“tumults in the midst” cf. Amos 3:9) will bring these nations to the point of internal collapse.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” God inspired the prophet Hosea to write (Hosea 4:6). Israel has rejected the knowledge of God and His ways. The more they have prospered materially, the more their sins have increased (vv. 7–8). It appears that immorality and substance abuse have sapped and destroyed their national spirit (v. 11).

God inspired Amos to prophesy of this time of serious drought and water rationing, coupled with massive crop failures and disease epidemics (Amos 4:7–10). “Therefore this will I do to you O Israel; and because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel! For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth the Lord God of hosts is His name” (vv. 12–13).

Jeremiah the prophet calls this coming time of national calamity “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). He states that it will be a time worse than any other time in human history. Jesus Christ spoke of this very same period of time in Matthew 24:21: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” There surely cannot be two times of trouble worse than any other, so clearly the Great Tribulation is a time of trouble and punishment for Israel. Punishment is not the end of the story, however!

Future Deliverance and Restoration

The prophet Ezekiel speaks of a future time when Israel will be regathered after the return of the Messiah in power and glory. “‘The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful to Me… According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.’ Therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel…then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their own land, and left none of them captive any longer'” (Ezekiel 39:23–28).

Isaiah also looked forward to that time when God would again choose Israel and restore them to their own land (Isaiah 14:1). God would give them rest from their sorrows, their fears, and the hard bondage they had experienced (v. 3). Israel would be regathered from captivity and would “blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (27:6). They would begin to rebuild the old ruined cities which had lain desolate and deserted for a period of years (61:4). Our people, after the coming punishment of the Tribulation has finally brought them to repentance, will be regathered from the nations of their future captivity. God inspired Ezekiel to describe the true national conversion of Israel which will follow. This will be a prelude to the conversion of the whole world. “I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you… I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (36:25–27).

Christ will have returned and the saints will have been resurrected to rule and reign with Him (Revelation 20:6). Again, we see in a number of places that ancient King David will be among those resurrected and he will actually be the direct ruler over regathered Israel (Ezekiel 37:24). Each of the 12 Apostles will be directly ruling over one of the 12 tribes (Luke 22:29–30).

At this glorious time, when God’s Kingdom will rule over all nations with Christ governing directly from Jerusalem, “‘The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,’ says the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25).

Yet before this prophesied time of peace, the peoples of the United States and Great Britain will have endured a time of great trial. God’s punishment on these nations will come swiftly and amaze the whole world. Only those who have turned fully to God will be spared. The nations will be shaken, and moved to a genuine repentance and a return to God unprecedented in modern times (Ezekiel 36:24–32).

There are two ways to learn our lessons in this life, the easy way or the hard way. Mankind as a whole appears destined to learn their lessons the hard way. Israel was supposed to be an example of righteousness to the world, but they have utterly failed individually and collectively. No one should think that other peoples and nations will escape the judgment of God if they follow this failed example!

What about you, personally? Will you heed the warnings contained in this booklet, which come directly from God’s word? Or, will you have to learn your lessons by hard experience?

We can show you the way to escape this coming holocaust if you are willing. You must be willing not merely to believe in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, but to do what God commands. You must be willing to seek God in a way you have never done before! You must be willing to “come out” of this modern Babylon its ideas and practices, its false religions and philosophies and devote yourself to earnestly study and to “live by every word of God” (Luke 4:4).

The choice is yours to make! May God help you to choose wisely and rightly.

Booklet Category

Doctrine

Prophecy

Armageddon and Beyond

4uwzvo — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 19:47:08 +0000

Armageddon and Beyond 4uwzvo Wed, 02/09/2022 - 19:47

Armageddon and Beyond

Richard F. Ames

Booklet Media

#Prophecy

#Revelation

Mankind is developing newer and more frightening technologies with which to destroy itself, while political and social tensions increase around the world. Will the years just ahead of us bring worldwide nuclear devastation, or usher in an era of lasting peace? Will the prophesied “Battle of Armageddon” soon bring destruction and death to our planet? What will “Armageddon” mean to you and your loved ones? And what will come afterward? Your Bible reveals a frightening time ahead

In the first decade of the 21st century, most of us realize we live in a very dangerous world. It was just six decades ago that a new weapon of unprecedented capacity was first unleashed, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945. A new era of mass destruction had begun.

At the end of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, accepted Japan’s unconditional surrender. Aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, General MacArthur summarized the danger and the choice facing humanity in this new era:

“Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be the way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence [renewal] and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.”

Human beings will continue to seek a way to peace. But without acknowledging the Creator God and His supreme rulership over planet Earth, nations will ultimately fail. The Apostle Paul nearly 2,000 years ago wrote of humanity’s violent and anti-God tendencies: “Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:15–18).

As we will see, Bible prophecy reveals that World War III is on the horizon. The greatest war in human history will explode in the Middle East. Nations will use their military power to cause massive death and destruction. They will gather in northern Israel for the climactic battle your Bible calls “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14). Most commentators refer to this awesome event as “Armageddon,” “the final battle between good and evil.” Who will win? Will humanity survive? Your Bible gives us the answer—and the good news that goes beyond today’s global threats to all life on our planet. You need to understand the sequence of prophetic events, and to prepare for them physically and spiritually.

Our Nuclear Era

Is there any current danger of nuclear war? Perhaps international treaties have calmed Cold War fears; since 1968, more than 180 nations have signed the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. But several nuclear nations have not signed the treaty, and many that have signed are believed to be violating its provisions. Jesus prophesied of these dangerous times in which we live: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21–22).

Christ was not speaking of spiritual salvation. He was speaking of the potential of human annihilation—of cosmocide—the death of all life on planet Earth! This danger is recognized not just by Bible students, but by respected scientists. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists monitors the dangers of living in this nuclear age, and expresses that danger with its “Doomsday Clock.” The closer the hands are to midnight, the closer the scientists perceive humanity has come to nuclear devastation. On January 17, 2007, the Bulletin moved the minute hand of the clock to five minutes before midnight, announcing, “We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices.”

An earlier Bulletin press release described the scope of just two nations’ nuclear arsenals: “Between them, Russia and the United States still have upwards of 30,000 nuclear weapons—strategic and tactical—in various states of readiness. Nine years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States and Russia collectively have some 7,000 warheads ready to be fired with less than 15 minutes notice.” Humanity, now, has the tools to destroy itself with very little warning. Will we bring about our own destruction? Will Armageddon play a role in humanity’s downfall?

Perhaps we will never know just how close we have come to mistakes that might have precipitated a nuclear conflagration. Today, at least nine nations are known to possess nuclear weapons. Two of these are by far the world’s largest nuclear powers. The United States—the only nation that has used nuclear weapons against another—has more than 10,000 nuclear warheads in its stockpile, down from the more than 31,000 it held in 1966. The United States is currently the only nation known to have some of its nuclear weapons deployed outside its own borders, with as many as 150 warheads located at ten airbases in seven NATO countries. The vast majority of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, however, is found across 14 states, with New Mexico, Georgia, Washington, Nevada and North Dakota accounting for about 70 percent of the total, according to a National Resource Defense Council report, Taking Stock: Worldwide Nuclear Deployments.

Russia is estimated to have at least 15,000 active nuclear warheads—down from the more than 40,000 the Soviet Union had deployed in 1986. At its peak, the Soviet nuclear arsenal stretched across hundreds of locations in Eastern Europe and to 14 of the 15 Soviet republics. Today, those warheads have reportedly been consolidated to just 90 sites in Russia.

By comparison, France’s estimated 450 nuclear warheads in four locations, China’s 200–400 in 20 locations, and the United Kingdom’s nearly 200 may not seem like much. As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists pointed out in its “Five Minutes to Midnight” report in January 2007, if the U.S. and Russia each agreed to dismantle one warhead a day for the next 25 years, they would still possess more nuclear weapons than all the other nuclear nations combined.

Israel, India and Pakistan possess an unknown number of nuclear weapons. Estimates regarding the size of Israel’s nuclear arsenal vary from about 75 to as many as 200. India and Pakistan are thought to have fewer than 50 each. Are these nations’ small arsenals a serious threat? Joseph Biden, U.S. senator from Delaware, put the Pakistan situation into perspective in a speech to students at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire on November 8, 2007: “It is hard to imagine a greater nightmare for America than the world’s second-largest Muslim nation becoming a failed state in fundamentalist hands, with an arsenal of nuclear weapons and a population larger than those of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea combined.”

Other nations are at the brink of widespread nuclear development. In October 2006, calling it a “historic event that brought happiness to our military and our people,” the North Korean news agency KCNA said North Korea’s nuclear weapon capability would maintain “peace and stability” in the region, and was “a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous, powerful socialist nation.” Since North Korea’s Rodong missiles can deliver a warhead at a distance up to 800 miles, this nuclear development unsettled many Asian nations.

Iran is perhaps the most noteworthy of the nations known to be developing nuclear technology, but it is far from alone. Mohammed El Baradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general, estimated that another 20 to 30 countries possess the capability, if not the intent, to pursue nuclear weapons technology.

When we think about nuclear weapons’ devastating capabilities, we may have in mind the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. But we need to understand that today’s “strategic warheads” are far more deadly than the weapons that were burned into our consciousness at the end of World War II. At Hiroshima, a 15–kiloton bomb obliterated a city and killed 100,000 people. Today’s smaller “strategic” nuclear warheads typically measure about 200 kilotons, and even one-megaton bombs have been built.

What would it be like for your city to be the target of a one-megaton nuclear bomb? After a nuclear explosion’s blast wave, its pulse of heat radiation and its intense release of X-rays, it triggers powerful firestorms in its wake. How many people would be killed by just one such bomb? Dr. Alan F. Phillips describes it this way,

“The estimates for a city of one million or two million struck by a single one-megaton bomb are that around one third of the inhabitants would be killed instantly or fatally injured, one third seriously injured, and the rest uninjured or only slightly injured. That number of injured, if they could be distributed throughout the hospitals of North America, would occupy something like one third of the total number of beds; and of course no hospital can deal adequately with such an influx of urgent cases within a few days” (Position Paper, Physicians for Global Survival, Canada, October 1995).

At least one nuclear accident, in 1986, illustrates the suffering and danger resulting from extensive radiation. Filmmaker Maryann de Leo wrote about her visit to the desolate Ukrainian town of Pripyat, which was permanently evacuated after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in 1986:

On a bright Sunday morning in Kiev, outside the Minskaia metro station and in front of a Ukrainian McDonald’s, a streamlined yellow tour bus idles its engine. The driver waits for passengers heading into the exclusion zone, a radioactive no-man’s-land created two decades ago by the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Soon about 20 people, mostly Ukrainians and Russians, gather near the bus. Two young, dark-haired men hand out white and blue radiation hazmat suits, yellow plastic slickers, and bottles of water. One of the day-trippers is Alex, born and raised in Pripyat until he was 10. Now 30, he is part of a virtual community of mostly young people who once lived in Pripyat, the forgotten city that was built in the 1970s for workers at the Chernobyl nuclear power station less than two miles away. At the time, Pripyat was called the City of the Future. Instead it was abandoned April 27, 1986, when its residents became the first and, so far, only permanent nuclear refugees in the world.

The trip, which the former Pripyat residents organized, coincided with the 20th anniversary of the explosion.… While the bus heads north to the exclusion zone, the 18-mile-wide region around the reactor, the organizers start showing Pripyat movies. After a few adjustments to the bus’s faulty video player, a small monitor begins to display gruesome scenes of the aftermath of the fire at the reactor. Scratchy black-and-white footage of the emergency workers shows graphic images of men in agony, with peeling sheets of skin and severe burns covering their bodies. Then we watch the mass exodus from Pripyat, a procession of 2,000 city and school buses inching their way out of the city like some strange funeral procession.

There are also images of April 26, the day of the blast, before residents knew of the danger. Home movies capture ordinary weddings, blurred bluish footage of brides in white dresses and smiling grooms.… This seems to be the last place on Earth where the Soviet Union is still alive. No one mentions the word radiation. They hand you a small necklace to wear when you arrive, a miniature dosimeter.

All in this land of make-believe, where everyone says everything is all right. And after you are here for a while, you start to believe it. Maybe radiation isn’t so bad. Maybe the body does adapt. Mice aren’t affected. Maybe humans aren’t either” (“The First Nuclear Refugees Come Home,” Discover, June 2007).

The former residents of Pripyat, who cannot safely return to their homes for more than a brief visit, have seen for themselves the terrible destruction mankind can wreak on the environment. If, as Voltaire wrote, “optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable,” are the former residents of Pripyat mad?

Bible students know that our world is dangerous, and that the danger is increasing. But they also know there is a real reason for hope—for optimism—as we will see in this booklet.

Forty years and more before the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, Russians—and Americans, and billions of others on planet Earth—lived under the constant threat of nuclear war. During the “Cold War” of the 1950s, that threat covered the United States and the Soviet Union like a cloud, and citizens of both countries rushed to build bomb shelters. In 1962, the “Cuban Missile Crisis” brought a frightened world to the brink of nuclear devastation. By late 2007, at least nine nations around the globe—the U.S., Russia, China, France, Israel, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan and North Korea—were known to have tested nuclear weapons, and several more were working diligently to gain nuclear capability.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions prompted the International Jerusalem Post to feature an Israeli jet fighter on its front page, above the headline, “The highest stakes: If all else fails, can Israel stop Iran’s nuclear program by force?” The article reported,

“With Iran pushing ahead with its program in defiance of the UN and the international community, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates announced in early November that they intended to begin upgrading their nuclear energy programs. Of the six, the most advanced by far are Egypt and Algeria. Turkey is also reported to be toying with the idea of starting a nuclear program” (January 12–18, 2007, p. 15).

You can learn more about events prophesied for that region by requesting our free, eye-opening booklet, The Middle East in Prophecy.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many have become less fearful of nuclear catastrophe. But are we truly safe? Even today, Russia and the United States can launch nuclear missiles within 15 minutes’ notice. Rogue states continue to develop atomic capabilities, and the threat of nuclear terrorism is only increasing, as technology allows ever-smaller devices to be built by the growing number of scientists with the knowledge to create them.

The terror has even moved to outer space. According to General Joseph Ashy, retired commander in chief of the United States Space Command: “We’re going to fight from space and we’re going to fight into space…. That’s why the U.S. has development programs in directed energy and hit-to-kill mechanisms.… We will engage terrestrial targets someday—ships, airplanes, land targets—from space” (quoted in “Waging War in Space,” The Nation, December 27, 1999).

In January 2007, China became the third nation (after the U.S. and Russia) to shoot down a space satellite. A Chinese anti-satellite weapon system destroyed a Chinese weather satellite orbiting at an estimated 537 miles above Earth—a feat demonstrating China’s new ability to shoot down other nations’ spy satellites and other objects in high Earth orbit. Officials from China’s near-neighbors Japan and Australia expressed fears that this move might portend a new arms race in space.

Is another world war around the corner? Do you know what the Bible reveals? Most Bible students have heard of the great climactic end-time event known as “the Battle of Armageddon.” But what is this battle, and how will it affect you and your family?

“It Was Like Armageddon!”

When our world faces any great calamity, we often hear commentators exclaim, “It’s like Armageddon!” We read a BBC News report that a rogue computer worm could spawn a “digital Armageddon.” We see business writer Michael Panzer publish Financial Armageddon, warning of economic disaster leading to hyperinflation and social breakdown. We find TIME magazine calling the loss of rainforest and the extinction of animal species an “impending Armageddon.”

“It was nuclear winter. It was like Armageddon. It looked like the end of the world,” said San Diego firefighter Mitch Mendler, battling the devastating Southern California fires of October 2007. But what exactly does—what exactly will—”Armageddon” look like? Your Bible has the answer!

History’s climactic battle, at the end of this present age, is described in the book of Revelation—the last book in your Bible. “And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16). How and why will the armies be gathered there? Just two verses earlier, we read, “For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:14).

Notice this! The actual battle is not called the battle of Armageddon. It is called “the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” But battle preparations commence at Armageddon. What is this place? The word Armageddon is a transliteration of the original Hebrew har megiddo which means the “hill of Megiddo” or “the mountain of Megiddo.”

Megiddo is located about 55 miles north of Jerusalem in Israel. In ancient times it guarded the main trade route between Egypt and Damascus. It also overlooks the largest plain in Israel, called the Valley of Jezreel or the Plain of Esdraelon. The Old Testament records several major battles that took place here. In World War I, British General Allenby defeated Turkish military forces there in what became known as “the Battle of Megiddo.”

With all the historic battles that have taken place at Megiddo, and its role in prophecy, the word “Armageddon” has come to symbolize any large-scale devastation. Humanity has invented many terrible weapons of mass destruction. Will these weapons bring about our Armageddon?

Deadly Threats to Planet Earth

In 2006, ABC News produced a program titled “Last Days on Earth.” They state, “Last Days on Earth takes viewers inside seven of the deadliest threats to humanity. Some have the power to render us extinct, others can destroy the planet; all could entail the end of our civilization.” These “deadliest threats” include nuclear war, super-volcanoes, asteroids, and plague. The CNN series titled “Planet in Peril” featured wholesale destruction of forests, and increasing numbers of extinct animal species. In presenting major threats to our planet, the television History Channel declared the week of October 22, 2007, “Armageddon Week.” Former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore produced the movie An Inconvenient Truth. He stated: “All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars, all the famines, all the major advances… it’s our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization.” Paramount Classics, in its promotion of the movie states: “Humanity is sitting on a time bomb. If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.”

Another movie, titled “The 11th Hour,” produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, stated in its promotion, “The tragedy is the potential extinction of mankind.” And “Not only is it the eleventh hour, it is 11:59.”

In addition to nuclear concerns, chemical and biological weapons are a growing threat. And a new threat is on the horizon: along with the feared nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons of mass destruction, a new category—genetics, nanotechnology and robotics (GNR)—promises new horrors for the 21st century.

Sun Microsystems founder Bill Joy, an early pioneer of the minicomputer age, wrote a startling essay published in the April 2000 issue of Wired magazine. Titled “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” Joy’s essay contemplated the effect of these new GNR technologies on warring humanity: “I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals.”

Joy is not alone in this sobering assessment. Journalist Gideon Rose offers the following analysis:

“The really difficult problem will be a new kind of proliferation involving the acquisition of chemical, biological and cyberweapons by subnational actors such as terrorist groups, cults or angry individuals. These weapons are easy to make, hard to track and hard to defend against. This means that even if the U.S. does spend tens of billions of dollars on a system to shoot down North Korean missiles, we will still have to deal with the equally pressing problem of stopping doomsday cults or future Unabombers armed with deadly viruses” (“Will Everyone Have the Bomb?”, Time Magazine, May 22, 2000, p. 103).

Amid all of our scientific advances in weaponry, man’s inhumanity to man has not ceased. From Kosovo to Kashmir, from East Timor to Chechnya, wars and massacres continue to escalate. Since World War II, atrocities against nations or peoples have continued unabated. According to Newsweek: “The Genocide Convention outlawed ‘acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,’ a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Postwar atrocities [include]: Bosnia: 300,000 dead, 2 million displaced; Cambodia: 1 million dead, 500,000 displaced; Rwanda: 1 million dead, 3.5 million displaced.”

In the face of such evil, we can see why judgment is coming upon our planet. Yet there is good news beyond the bad. Jesus Christ, the greatest newscaster and prophet in all of human history, told us that these atrocities would end: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

Gathered for War

Scripture shows us that Armageddon is the gathering place for the climactic battle of the Great Day of God Almighty! Massive armies will gather on the plain of Esdraelon to begin the ultimate conflagration. But where does Armageddon fit into the panorama of prophecy? The Apostle John described the famous four horsemen of the Apocalypse. They symbolize, in order, false christs and false religion, war and its devastating effects, famines that normally follow war, and pestilences and disease which follow after famine.

Look at what the Bible says about the terrible devastation that these four horsemen bring: “So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8).

Have the nations laid down their arms since World War II? No! In the last half of the 20th century, millions suffered from wars around the world, from Korea and Indochina to Bosnia and East Africa, as well as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Today, few nations are left untouched by conflict. The 2006 Conflict Barometer, published by the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, gave this sobering report:

“In 2006, there were 278 political conflicts. Six of these were wars, and 29 severe crises, amounting to a total of 35 conflicts carried out with a massive amount of violence. Eighty-three conflicts were classified as crises, meaning violence was used only occasionally. Altogether, 118 conflicts were carried out violently.”

Yet all the destruction we have seen since the end of World War II will pale in comparison to the death that will cover planet Earth at the end of this age. One-fourth of all human beings on earth will die, as war, hunger and disease expand across the globe.

Outside the Bible, do any in our modern age see such devastation as possible? Indeed, they do. Comparing the risk of genetic tampering to the “Black Plague” that ravaged Europe in the 14th century, author Joy commented: “My own major concern with genetic engineering is… that it gives the power—whether militarily, accidentally or in a deliberate terrorist act—to create a ‘White Plague'” (Wired, April 2000, p. 249). Modern scientists know that these horrors may be just over the horizon!

Yet mankind need not look to genetic manipulations to foresee devastation. Another deadly trend is heat and drought. World temperatures are shifting in dramatic ways. Just a few years ago, in the summer of 2003, more than 20,000 in Italy died as a result of an unprecedented heat wave. As many as 10,000 in France also died as a result of the heat that summer. In 2007, the U.S. Drought Monitor, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, classified several states in the western U.S. as experiencing “severe” or “extreme” drought, and several southeastern U.S. states as facing the ultimate category of “exceptional” drought. As we read earlier, drought conditions in Southern California supported widespread wind-whipped fires in October 2007, destroying more than 500,000 acres and at least 1,700 homes in what firefighters described as an out-of-control inferno!

Will the southwestern U.S. be able to support growing populations in the future? The October 21, 2007 cover of The New York Times Magazine asked: “The Perfect Drought: Will population and climate change leave the West without water?” In that magazine, writer Jon Gertner observed,

“In the Southwest this past summer, the outlook was equally sobering. A catastrophic reduction in the flow of the Colorado River—which mostly consists of snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains—has always served as a kind of thought experiment for water engineers, a risk situation from the outer edge of their practical imaginations. Some 30 million people depend on that water. A greatly reduced river would wreak chaos in seven states: Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.”

Gertner goes on to quote Columbia University scientist Richard Seager, who recently completed a study of the present dry conditions: “You can’t call it a drought anymore, because it’s going over to a drier climate. No one says the Sahara is in drought” (“The Future Is Drying Up,” pp. 70, 74).

The continent of Australia has also been experiencing unprecedented drought. Australia’s National Climate Centre in November 2007 issued a report outlining drought conditions across the parched continent. Although northwestern Australia has experienced very wet conditions, other large regions have since November 2001 experienced “lowest on record” rainfall, accompanied by unusual heat. In the Murray-Darling Basin, rainfall from November 2001 through October 2007 matched or surpassed historic lows, with 75 percent of the basin experiencing rainfall levels in the lowest 10 percent since recordkeeping began.

In the U.S., older Americans living in their nation’s Midwest region can still remember the “Dust Bowl” conditions that ravaged the Great Plains states from 1933 through 1939. Will such conditions be repeated—or grow even worse? Will we see more extended droughts in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand? The Creator God gave this warning through the prophet Amos: “‘I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,’ says the Lord” (Amos 4:7–8). Unless we wholeheartedly turn to God, we willexperience severe punishment.

Seven Seals Reveal Our Future

The well-known “four horsemen of the apocalypse” symbolize the devastation of much of planet Earth, and the death of billions of human beings. You need to understand the sequence of these awesome prophetic milestones, if you hope to prepare yourself and your loved ones for what is ahead. The Bible reveals that six major prophetic events, including the famous “four horsemen,” lead up to the battle of Armageddon. That battle, as we will see, is in fact a part of the prophesied “seventh seal.” What are these mysterious, prophesied seven seals—and how can we understand their meaning?

The Book of Revelation—the last book in your Bible—is a mystery to most people. Some think it is just allegory. Others say it is all about past events. Did you know that this book, in its description of the seven seals, gives the outline of end-time prophecy? You can know how end-time events will unfold—and how you can be ready for them! You need to understand the seven seals of Revelation. For a more complete explanation of the mysteries of Revelation, be sure to write for our free booklet, Revelation: The Mystery Unveiled!

Around 95ad, the Apostle John wrote down in Revelation the inspired words of God. John had been exiled to the island of Patmos off the southwest coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea. The island was used as a Roman penal colony in the first century. He wrote: “I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9).

God chose the Apostle John to record the Apocalypse, or Revelation. As Scripture explains, it was John “who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw” (v. 2). Notice this blessing pronounced on those who seriously study the book of Revelation: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (v. 3).

Humanity as a whole is ignorant of one of the greatest books ever written! God has deliberately hidden the deep meaning of this mysterious book from those who are spiritually blinded—which means that He has hidden its meaning from most of the world.

Even Adam Clarke, the famous Bible commentator, found difficulty in making any sense of Revelation. Clarke wrote: “I had resolved, for a considerable time, not to meddle with this book, because I foresaw that I could produce nothing satisfactory on it” (Preface to the Revelation of St. John, p. 966).

But you can understand the book of Revelation. Notice that this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ—not that of St. John the Divine, as some Bibles title the book. What, then, is the purpose of Jesus’ revelation? It is to “show His servants—things which must shortly take place” (Revelation 1:1). The purpose of the book is not to hide the truth, but to reveal events leading up to Christ’s return! In fact, the word “apocalypse” comes from the Greek apokalupsis, which means “uncovering” or “unveiling.” You need to know what those prophesied events are!

The seven seals reveal prophetic events that lie just ahead of us. In Revelation 5, we read about a scroll sealed with seven seals. John begins to weep when at first “no one” is found worthy to open the scroll. Then: “But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals'” (v. 5). The Lion of the tribe of Judah is Jesus Christ—He begins to open the scroll sealed with seven seals.

In Revelation 6, we read the description of six of those seals. The first four seals are known as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Apostle John describes the Lamb—Jesus Christ—opening the first seal. “Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer” (vv. 1–2).

What do the white horse and its rider represent? Some commentators mistakenly say that these represent Christ, because the imagery appears similar to the description of Christ given in Revelation 19. But when we compare the Revelation 19 description to the first horseman, we find notable differences. Christ comes with many crowns (v. 12), not just one crown. And He comes with a sword (v. 15), not a bow as in Revelation 6.

Christ is the Revelator. He reveals the meaning of this white horse. Jesus describes the signs of His second coming, and the sequence of events, that coincide with the seals of Revelation. “And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many'” (Matthew 24:4–5).

This white horse, and its rider, represent false religions—”false christs” (v. 24). In Matthew 24, Jesus continues describing the sequence of events: war, famine, pestilence and tribulation. Jesus is the One who interprets the seals of Revelation. He tells us:

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (vv. 6–9).

The second seal reveals a horseman riding a red horse, having the power to take peace away from Earth. The third seal presents a rider on a black horse, representing a scarcity of food and resulting famine. The fourth seal shows a rider on a pale horse, whose name is Death. As we have seen, these four horsemen have power over one-fourth of our planet to kill “with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8). Jesus also spoke of the pestilence that normally follows a famine. We see in Matthew 24 that Jesus confirmed the meaning of these seals when He spoke of:

Deceptive religion (Matthew 24:4)—the first seal, or the first of the four horsemen
Wars (Matthew 24:6–7)—the second seal, or the second of the four horsemen
Famines (Matthew 24:7)—the third seal, or the third of the four horsemen
Pestilences (Matthew 24:7)—the fourth seal, or the fourth of the four horsemen
Tribulation, religious persecution and martyrdom (Matthew 24:9–10)—the fifth seal.

Abomination of Desolation

In Matthew 24, Jesus also gave another very specific sign of the imminent coming of the Great Tribulation. “‘Therefore when you see the “abomination of desolation,” spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place’ (whoever reads, let him understand), ‘then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains'” (Matthew 24:16).

We need to understand what this abomination of desolation is all about. Historically, in 167bc, the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes issued a decree that prohibited further sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple, as Daniel had foretold. “And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation” (Daniel 11:31).

In addition to stopping the daily sacrifices, Antiochus further erected a statue of Jupiter Olympus in the temple and directed everyone to worship it. This abomination, also mentioned in Daniel 8, foreshadowed an end-time event. In the future, end-time animal sacrifices will again be cut off, this time 1,290 days before Christ’s return. “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days” (Daniel 12:11).

Jesus warns His followers to be alert to an end-time abomination of desolation! Just as Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the temple in 167bc and cut off the sacrifices, so a profane authority will cut off Jewish temple sacrifices in the future. In fact, the Apostle Paul warns of a great false prophet who will stand in the holy place. “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).

In the first century, Christians fled Jerusalem to the town of Pella and escaped the devastation brought on Jerusalem by the Roman Army in 70ad (Please write for your free copy of our booklet, God’s Church Through the Ages, to learn more about how God’s Church was established, grew and resisted terrible persecution over the centuries). But the context here is “the end of the age” (Matthew 24:3). Jesus describes this period as “Great Tribulation” (v. 21)—the time of Satan’s wrath and evil persecution. “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12). As Jesus said, this time of tribulation will be the greatest ever (Matthew 24:21). In all the atrocities and genocide we have known in the past, the history of the world has never seen this degree of evil.

We read: “Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent” (Revelation 12:13–14). The biblical symbol for the Church is a woman (cf. Ephesians 5:22–32). God will protect His true saints—genuine Christians—from the Great Tribulation. This is not a secret rapture. There is no such event in the Bible. Notice that the woman is taken to “her place” in the wilderness. Then the dragon pursues those lukewarm Christians who had not been intently growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (v. 17). Satan will attack the remnant of the Church, and the national descendants of Jacob. “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7). This unique time in all history, the Great Tribulation, will see Satan’s wrath on the descendants of Jacob—not just the Jews, but also the American and British-descended peoples, and peoples of northwestern Europe. We certainly need to take warning!

As Christ’s second coming nears, God will begin to intervene more powerfully in human affairs. Dramatic astronomical and terrestrial activity will draw everyone’s attention. Notice:

“Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'” (Revelation 6:14–17).

Whose wrath will be poured out on the nations? The Lamb of God—Jesus Christ—will be wrathful! Why? Because most of the world has rebelled against God and gone the way of wickedness. John explained that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). Or, “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (KJV).

The world today does not know the true God, but those living in tomorrow’s world will know God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ! People will be teachable. After the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord and Armageddon, the nations will be humbled. They will even want to learn the way of God and the Bible! Notice: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it” (Isaiah 2:2). All nations will come to the newly established world capital, Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. “Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths'” (v. 3). They will desire knowledge of God’s ways! Do you have that desire now? Notice what the Messiah, the King, Jesus Christ will teach in the Millennium. “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (v. 3). That word is available to you now, in your Bible. The Bible is God’s gift to us—we need to read it daily! As Jesus said: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

The Heavenly Signs

The four horsemen will intensify their ride as we approach the Day of the Lord. As we have seen, they are revealed in Revelation 6 as Christ opens the first four seals. What happens when the fifth seal is opened? “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held” (Revelation 6:9).

Here is described the martyrdom of the saints, true Christians. In the first century, the Emperor Nero violently persecuted Christians and put them to death. A major end-time persecution of saints is also foretold by this fifth seal. Jesus predicted this future tribulation in Matthew 24:9. Then Jesus opens the sixth seal, revealing the heavenly signs that will shock people all across our planet. What are those heavenly signs? “I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood” (Revelation 6:12).

These future cosmic disturbances will warn all of humanity. During the first century, about the time of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, there were also signs in the heavens (Luke 23:44–45). The Apostle Peter referred to them in his Pentecost message:

“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of theLord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved'” (Acts 2:14–21).

The Apostle Peter instructed them to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38), and 3,000 were baptized that day!

Now, notice the end-time prophetic signs. The Apostle John continues in Revelation chapter six: “And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place” (Revelation 6:13–14).

Will asteroids and meteors cause catastrophic damage to life on Earth? Will God eventually use asteroids, small or great, to punish unrepentant, rebellious nations and peoples? Scripture shows plainly that huge hailstones will crush people and property. “From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible” (Revelation 16:21, NIV).

Movies such as 1997’s Asteroid, and 1998’s Armageddon and Deep Impact, have portrayed asteroids as threatening all life on Earth. Is there any real danger of smaller asteroids colliding with our planet? Author John Roach, writing inNational Geographic News, warned: “It is almost certain that Earth will be hit by an asteroid large enough to exterminate a large percentage of our planet’s life, including possibly over a billion people, according to researchers. But as such cataclysmic collisions occur on average only once in a million years or so, are they really worth worrying about?” (“Killer Asteroids: A Real But Remote Risk?”, June 19, 2003). Yes, Bible prophecy reveals that we should be very concerned!

Not only will asteroids and meteors frighten people, but massive earthquakes will also shake planet Earth. As the Apostle John saw in vision, “every mountain and island was moved out of its place.” If you have ever experienced a strong earthquake, as many have in California, you know how frightening earthquakes can be. Your knees and legs feel weak as water, even if you have not been seriously injured. Perhaps you feel secure because your city or region has no history of earthquakes. In a TIME magazine cover story, author George J. Church reminded us: “Earthquakes are unpredictable. They almost invariably strike not only at times but at places nobody expects, and no one quake is exactly like any other” (January 30, 1995).

How powerful can earthquakes be? The historic Mississippi Valley earthquake on December 16, 1811, near New Madrid, Missouri, actually reversed the course of the Mississippi River! The series of quakes had estimated magnitudes of 8.6, 8.4, and 8.8. As the Time Almanac 2001 states: “It is the largest series of earthquakes known to have occurred in North America” (p. 614).

Natural disasters have killed hundreds of thousands in recent years. In October of 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan, leaving nearly 90,000 dead and more than three million homeless. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans, and disrupted millions of lives along the U.S. Gulf Coast. On December 26, 2004, the 9.1 magnitude Sumatra earthquake, and the resulting tsunami, killed more than 280,000 across South Asia.

Earthquakes and the “heavenly signs” will introduce the Day of the Lord: the time of God’s wrath and judgment on an unthankful, rebellious world. Jesus Christ, the Lamb, will be wrathful. He will execute God’s righteous judgments. The Day of the Lord is also called “the great day of His wrath” (Revelation 6:17)!

Some critics say, “There have always been earthquakes. There have always been volcanoes and other environmental disruptions. What we’re seeing today doesn’t mean Christ’s return is any closer.” It is incredible to believe, but even as end-time events grow far more intense, some scoffers will deny until the last possible moment, when they will be confronted by God Himself, that He is pouring out His judgment on rebellious humanity. Just after Jesus speaks of His second coming, He states: “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!” (Matthew 24:32–33). Jesus instructs all His true followers to be knowledgeable about these signs.

Yes, there have always been cynics and doubters, but now is the time to wake up and heed what is happening around the world. God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel about the skeptics and scoffers. “Son of man, what is this proverb that you people have about the land of Israel, which says, ‘The days are prolonged, and every vision fails’?” (Ezekiel 12:22). What does God say about mankind’s skepticism? “Tell them therefore, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will lay this proverb to rest, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel.” But say to them, “The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision”‘” (Ezekiel 12:23). We need to keep our eyes open to what God is doing—now, and as the end of the age approaches and the seals are unleashed on our world!

Framework for Prophecy

We need to understand the time sequence leading up to the Christ’s second coming. There are three major prophetic milestones leading up to His return:

The Great Tribulation
The Heavenly Signs
The Day of the Lord

These three events cover a period of about three-and-a-half years. There are more than 30 prophecies in your Bible referring to the Day of the Lord. How long is the Day of the Lord? Two scriptures give us the answer. Speaking of God’s judgments on the nations, Isaiah writes, “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8). Isaiah 63:4 also shows that the Day of the Lord in end-time prophecy, the time preceding Christ’s return, is a period of one year!

In addition to those milestones, the book of Revelation reveals four ongoing events that continue for that period of three-and-a-half years (see chart on pages 22–23). What are the four ongoing events that occur during the three-and-a-half years? The first event is that Jerusalem is trampled by the Gentiles for 42 months (Revelation 11:1–2). The second event is the Two Witnesses prophesying for 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3). The third event is the Church’s time in the wilderness, which the Bible describes as “a time, and times, and half a time”—biblical language for three-and-a-half years (Revelation 12:13–17). The woman described here in Revelation 12 is symbolic of the Church. The fourth event is the Beast continuing for 42 months in its final revival (Revelation 13:1–5). This Beast symbolizes a revived Roman Empire. For more detail on this vital topic, be sure to request our free booklet, The Beast of Revelation, Myth, Metaphor, or Soon-Coming Reality? This revived Beast will be a superpower that will rival and eventually surpass the United States! Watch events in Europe as this Beast prepares to appear on the scene.

Three major milestones lead up to the second coming of Christ. The Great Tribulation lasts for about two-and-a-half years. Next, the Heavenly Signs shock people all over the world. The Heavenly Signs introduce the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is the prophetic time period of one year leading up to Christ’s return. So there are four ongoing events during these three-and-a-half years: Jerusalem is trodden down by the Gentiles, the two witnesses prophesy, the church is nourished in the wilderness, and the Beast power dominates for 42 months.

The Day of the Lord

The Day of the Lord is a major prophetic event that will affect the lives of every human being on Earth. You need to understand the meaning of the Day of the Lord, its powerful significance, and its place in prophecy. The great prophets of the Bible, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel spoke about it. The so-called “minor prophets”—Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah and Malachi—also emphasized this event. Even the Apostles Peter and Paul wrote about it. The Day of the Lord is the seventh seal of Revelation, consisting of seven trumpet plagues, through which God judges the nations. The seventh trumpet plague includes Armageddon!

As we read in Revelation 6, the sixth seal or the heavenly signs introduce the Day of the Lord, also called “the great day of His wrath” (Revelation 6:17)! So, what is the Day of the Lord? It is the climactic time of God’s judgment on the nations. It is the time when Almighty God begins to intervene more directly and powerfully in the affairs of humanity.Holman Bible Dictionary defines the Day of the Lord as follows: “The time when God reveals His sovereignty over human powers and human existence.”

The book of Revelation emphasizes prophetic events leading up to the return of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Apostle John writes in Revelation 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet.” John is not describing a day of the week, as some commentators believe. He is speaking of the major prophetic period of time described in the rest of the book as the Day of the Lord. The expression “Lord’s Day” here in Revelation is plainly referring to the theme of the whole book, the prophetic Day of the Lord culminating in Jesus Christ’s return as King of kings and Lord of lords!

We need to understand that John is not referring to Sunday as the Lord’s day. If He were doing that, he would have referred to Sunday as “the first day” of the week as he did in the Gospel of John. Jesus Himself, who kept the seventh-day Sabbath, said He was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27–28)! He was not speaking of Sunday!

As we have already established, this year-long Day of the Lord is the seventh seal of Revelation. And the seventh seal consists of seven trumpet plagues or judgments. John writes in Revelation 8:1, “When He [Christ] opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.” They are introduced by “noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake” (v. 5).

The first four trumpets announce ecological devastation that will plague our planet. A third of all trees are burned up, and all green grass is burned up. A third of all living creatures in the sea die; a third of ocean-going ships are destroyed. A third of rivers and springs become poisonous. A third of the heavens become darkened.

Notice Joel’s sobering warning:

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand: a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations” (Joel 2:1–2).

The trumpet is used to sound an alarm—to help people prepare for major battles or as described here, an invading army! Here the prophet Joel warns of a unique time in all history. The next verse describes terrible destruction, a scorched-earth policy—everything is left desolate. “A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them” (v. 3). During the Day of the Lord, invading armies will burn vast territories. Humanity will also see incredible disruption of the heavens as well as total destruction on the land. “The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?” (Joel 2:10–11).

God calls this destructive Gentile force His army! As we will see later, a powerful army of 200 million, prophesied to destroy one-third of Earth’s population, will send troops into the Middle East. Almighty God will intervene in human affairs in a dramatic way. Major wars will erupt when God executes judgment on the nations.

Not only will military weapons destroy vast regions, incredible ecological devastation will destroy agriculture. “What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten” (Joel 1:4). In October 2007, The West Australian News reported the following:

“Locusts are emerging as the latest threat to WA’s drastically slashed grain crop and sought-after livestock feed…. Last year, the department spent $11.1 million spraying 450,000 hectares across about 70 shires through the northern, central and southern agricultural regions. Farmers matched those efforts. While the campaign was mainly a success, the pests remained in big enough numbers to invade about 70 towns and healthy enough to reach the south coast and put down eggs to produce the latest generation.”

In the not-too-distant future, the insect plagues some nations experience today will seem minor by comparison. When God brings punishments upon rebellious nations in the future Day of the Lord, He will call upon the nations to humble themselves and repent! Of course, you and I do not need to wait until then! As we approach the coming Day of the Lord, we see that God calls His people to humble themselves: “Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty” (Joel 1:14–15).

We need to remember that—as devastating as these events may be—they lead up to the great hope we all have, the return of the Messiah, Jesus Christ! God will judge the nations during the Day of the Lord, but He will also be preparing a time of restoration.

Notice: “The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So you shall know that I am theLord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain” (Joel 3:16–17). Yes, our hope is in the Savior and His coming rulership over all the nations!

The last three trumpet plagues are called woes. The word “woe” is an exclamation of grief! “And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!'” (Revelation 8:13).

Revelation 9 describes the first woe or the fifth trumpet plague. The fifth angel sounds a trumpet that begins a military action that lasts for five months. The Apostle John describes the war in apocalyptic terms:

“And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit [Satan], whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things” (Revelation 9:9–12).

The second woe, or the sixth trumpet plague, is pictured with symbols of horses and horsemen. Here we see an intense military counter-attack. We read: “Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates'” (vv. 13–14).

We should note one biblical key that can help you understand the future in the Middle East—prophecies concerning the Euphrates River. The Euphrates River runs from Turkey through Syria and Iraq to the Persian Gulf. The nation of Iran lies immediately to the east of Iraq.

An army of 200 million, prophesied to destroy one-third of the planet’s population, will move troops westward across the Euphrates River. “So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths” (vv. 15–18).

This is describing world war! And this phase of World War III will kill billions of human beings! Jesus said that unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved—all life on planet Earth would be destroyed (Matthew 24:21–22).

Then the seventh trumpet sounds. For Christians, the sounding of the seventh trumpet is good news because it announces Jesus Christ’s return and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on planet Earth. We all need to be preparing spiritually for that time! “Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!'” (Revelation 11:15).

Pre-, Post- or Amillenialism?

Some theologians wrongly teach that there will be no literal thousand-year rule of Christ on planet Earth. This teaching is called amillennialism. Others wrongly teach that the Church will grow in power and influence, perhaps over thousands or tens of thousands of years, converting billions of people and bringing morality and peace to our planet before Christ returns to execute His final judgment. This false teaching is called postmillennialism.

The Bible, by contrast, teaches premillennialism—that Jesus Christ will return, before the Millennium, and will rule on planet Earth with the saints for a thousand years. At the seventh trumpet, Jesus Christ will become Ruler over planet Earth, and faithful Christians who are in the grave will be resurrected to immortality and glory. Notice this inspiring statement: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Genuine Christians who are still alive at Christ’s return will be changed from mortality to immortality. “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51–53). Resurrected Christians will then begin their rule with Christ on planet Earth. Remember: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6).

The establishment of the Kingdom of God on planet Earth will be an awesome event! The world throughout history has been waiting for that great milestone! We need Christ’s return to Earth! Mankind has not brought the world lasting peace. Scarcely more than 60 years ago, mankind exploded the first nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the first time in history, the human race had gained the means to annihilate itself—complete cosmocide became a very real danger.

Most of us are well aware that nuclear war still threatens us in the 21st century! We need Christ to return, to bring peace, justice and God’s way to mankind! The good news is that the one-year period of time called the Day of the Lord, culminates in the announcement of the good news that Christ is taking over all the kingdoms and governments of this world!

The Seventh Trumpet

The seventh trumpet is also called the third woe! Why? Because it will also signal the seven last plagues! This is an intense fulfillment of the day of God’s wrath and judgment on rebellious nations. “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete” (Revelation 15:1).

We need to face reality. Read the description of these seven last plagues in Revelation 16. They include plagues of painful sores on those who have worshiped the Beast power and its image. They include even more poisonous rivers and seas to the extent that “every living creature in the sea died” (Revelation 16:3). The sun becomes hotter, resulting in extreme heat waves that torment those who will not repent of their sins!

Here is the frightening description of what the sixth angel unleashes upon rebellious humanity:

“Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (vv. 12–14).

Incredible as it may seem, the rebellious nations of planet Earth are so deceived, arrogant, and angry, that they will attempt to fight against the returning King of kings and Lord of lords, whom many will believe is an invader from outer space!

War Against Christ!

“The kings of the earth,” including the Beast—the prophesied European superpower; the revived Roman Empire—will move into the Middle East. And the kings of the East, who would normally be fighting against the Beast power, also move into the Middle East. But instead of fighting one another, they join ranks to fight against an invader from outer space, Jesus Christ! “And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon” (v. 16). The armies of the world will gather there to make war against Jesus Christ—the Commander of Heaven’s armies! The Apostle John writes,

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11–16).

When Christ returns to planet Earth, He will judge and conquer all His enemies. John continues: “And I saw the beast [the prophesied military dictator], and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him [against Jesus] who sat on the horse and against His army” (v. 19).

Yet, amazingly, as we have seen, the nations will still want to fight the conquering King of Heaven’s armies! Satan’s demons—fallen angels—will gather those armies that were about to annihilate one another and all life on Earth. These opposing forces now join one another to fight against Christ at His coming.

These armies are gathered at Megiddo to make war against Christ and His army. The war or battle is called “the battle of the great day of God Almighty.” But where will the battle take place? The prophet Joel tells us that this climactic battle will take place near Jerusalem. “For behold, in those days and at that time… I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there” (Joel 3:1–2).

The valley of Jehoshaphat, also called the Kidron Valley, is located between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, and extends southward. The world’s armies will move southward from Megiddo to fight Jesus Christ at Jerusalem. In the great climactic battle of all ages, the Creator God will prevail, as puny human beings fail in their futile attempt to conquer God.

Foolish generals will quickly learn how powerless they are against the omnipotent, divine power of God! Listen to the results of that battle: “For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem.… Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives” (Zechariah 14:2–4). Notice the horrible punishment wrought on those rebellious, evil armies. “And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths” (v. 12).

John writes:

“Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh” (Revelation 19:20–21).

God Will Save Doomed Mankind

God will step in to save mankind from total annihilation. The seventh trumpet will announce a new world government—a new world order under the King of kings, Jesus Christ: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!'” (Revelation 11:15).

That is the good news, the gospel this sorry world so desperately needs. Yes, the world will survive Armageddon. Why? Because there are faithful Christians for whom the world will be saved. As Jesus stated in Matthew 24:22, “but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” God will save the world to demonstrate His way of life and peace for a thousand years. The Prince of Peace, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will teach all nations the way to world peace. And how long will the world enjoy the peaceful reign of Christ and the saints? The Apostle John describes that time: “And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years…. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4, 6).

The world will not be totally destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. But God will judge the nations—including our western nations, which have become hypocritical—having at most a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). We individually need to be spiritually awake, alert and spiritually clothed. As Jesus said: “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation 16:15).

We should all look forward to Christ’s return. Now is the time to prepare spiritually—to repent and change our lives! Seek God in prayer. Study your Bible, and commit yourself to live by it (Matthew 4:4). Look forward to a world under the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, when all nations will learn how to live by the Bible, the law of God, the government of God and the love of God. Today’s Christians are preparing to assist Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God, where they will teach others the Way they have learned from their Savior (Isaiah 30:20-21; Revelation 5:10).

Beyond Armageddon

Will the world survive Armageddon? Will we face the reality of a “second nuclear age” and the coming devastation of World War III? Jesus warns us all concerning the end-times and the Great Tribulation, “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24:22). The good news is that Christ will return as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). Remember His encouraging promise to return to Earth and establish the Kingdom of God here. He told His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). The gospel, or the good news of the Kingdom, proclaims a new age of peace and prosperity for the world. Christ will rule on Earth: “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east” (Zechariah 14:4). The King will rule from Jerusalem, the new Capital of the world. Faithful Christians, the saints, will serve and rule with Him: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9–10).

Faithful Christians will inherit the Kingdom of God: “But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever” (Daniel 7:18). Those saints will be in the first resurrection when Christ returns. They will rule on planet Earth, serve under the King of kings, and help billions of people during the Millennium. At Christ’s return—at the beginning of the Millennium—they will be resurrected, or changed, and given immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51–54). They “shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (v. 49); They will have glory, power, immortality and a spirit body.

Remember, after Jesus’ resurrection, He ascended to heaven and had His pre-incarnate glory restored to Him, such that “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength” (Revelation 1:16). Yet Jesus was able to manifest Himself in the flesh after His resurrection; He appeared to His disciples and shared bread and fish with them (John 21:13). The saints also will be able to manifest themselves to the physical nations during the Millennium. As kings and priests, they will be governing and teaching. In fact, the priests in ancient Israel were the teachers. During the Millennium, today’s faithful Christians will be teaching God’s way of life—the way of truth, the way of the Bible, the way of living that Christ exemplified and taught. As kings and priests, they will teach the world the way to peace: “And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:20–21).

We have seen from the Bible that faithful Christians will rule on planet Earth as kings and priests with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. God means what He says. The time is coming when all nations will know the true God. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).

God’s Kingdom will rule on planet Earth. Jerusalem will be the capital of the world! Notice this inspiring prophecy: “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain'” (Zechariah 8:3). Faithful Christians will serve Jesus Christ as kings and priests here on Earth—not in heaven as many wrongly teach!

After the thousand years, Satan the devil will be released to deceive the nations. Those who follow that deceiver will be destroyed by fire from heaven (Revelation 20:9). Satan and his demons will be cast into the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41). Then the Book of Life will be opened for billions, for the first time, in the White Throne Judgment. This is the time of the second resurrection, the judgment period when many of your friends and relatives, who never had a real opportunity for salvation (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4), will be given that opportunity. After the White Throne Judgment, what will happen? “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14–15).

This is the real hellfire of your Bible. After the White Throne Judgment, all the unrepentant human beings who have ever lived will be destroyed in the lake of fire. All those who have obeyed Christ and accepted Him as Savior—as Lord and Master—will be glorified children of God, living forever in the immortalized family of God. The Apostle Peter writes that our planet will then be totally purged by fire: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

When Christ returns to planet Earth, He will conquer all His enemies. He will conquer the nations and their powerful armies that fight against Him at His coming. The Day of the Lord, including Armageddon, will bring God’s judgment on the nations. As we have seen, in one sense the Day of the Lord is the year preceding Christ’s return. In another sense, it continues on through the millennium and on out to eternity. Earth will be renewed, and so will the heavens. Then God’s heavenly throne will come to the purified Earth: “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God'” (Revelation 21:3).

Notice that God not only gives Christians planet Earth (Matthew 5:5)—He also gives us “all things”—the entire universe: “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son” (Revelation 21:7; cf. Romans 8:32). God’s purpose is to prepare us to govern the universe. We will be able to travel instantly to far-off galaxies. We will not be limited by time and space. God wants us to liberate the creation from its decay and corruption. As Paul wrote, “the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

Your Personal Future

Our world—with its rebellious, God-defying ways—is headed for Armageddon. Jesus Christ will judge the nations during the Day of the Lord and Armageddon. The Great Tribulation, leading up to that time, is a time of punishment on the descendants of Jacob—the United States and the British-descended nations, as well as nations of northwestern Europe, and also the Jewish people. It is the time of “Jacob’s trouble.” “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). For a more complete explanation of that judgment period, be sure to write for our free booklet, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy.

Will you personally survive the dangerous times ahead? We need to understand that God promises to protect those who turn to Him through Jesus Christ. He will provide for His Church during the three-and-a-half years of the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, and Armageddon. “Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman [symbolic of the Church, c.f. Ephesians 5:22–32] was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent” (Revelation 12:13–14).

The Church is not raptured, but divinely protected in the wilderness—in “her place” on this earth—during the final conflagration before Christ’s return. What can you do? What action must you take? God tells us through the prophet Isaiah, “Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zephaniah 2:3). Yes, God will “hide” His people during the traumatic times ahead. But He expects us to be spiritually awake and watchful. Jesus warns us,

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:34–36).

You need to watch world events as they relate to Bible prophecy. And you need to pray that you will be able to stand before Christ at His coming. God gives us a choice: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). You need to choose life, and choose the salvation that God offers you through Jesus Christ! You need to repent and be baptized, as the Apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38). If you have come to the place in your life where you have made a commitment to change your lifestyle and surrender to Jesus Christ, we urge you to counsel with one of our ministers. You may want to read our informative booklet,Christian Baptism: Its True Meaning. Just write to one of our regional offices listed at the end of this booklet.

God has a wonderful plan of salvation for all humanity. He wants you to be a part of His family for all eternity. Paul wrote: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14–15).

One of the awesome activities Christians will experience, for all eternity, is fellowship in God’s loving family. It is a royal family (1 Peter 2:5, 9). Jesus Christ will come back as King of kings, and Lord of lords. Jesus Christ will “have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). Yes, we will be kings and priests, serving under our Savior, Jesus Christ!

God has an awesome destiny in store for His faithful children. We will be active, fulfilled and gloriously happy for all eternity. Foretelling the coming of the Messiah, and His eternal kingdom, the prophet Isaiah wrote: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end…” (Isaiah 9:6–7).

Do you want to be a part of the glorious future God has planned for you? Do you look forward to the day when God the Father’s throne of grace will come to planet Earth? Only then, finally, will there be no more pain, suffering and death. John writes of our inspiring ultimate destiny: “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). This is the eternity God has planned for you. May God help you to understand His great love and purpose for you. Now is the time to change your way of living. Now is the time to prepare for the challenging days ahead and look to God for protection during the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord and Armageddon. May you look forward to God’s coming Kingdom, your potential future in the glorious family of God, and beyond into eternity!

Booklet Category

Prophecy

Prophecy

Acts of God: Why Natural Disasters?

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

EVIDENCE HARD TO DENY

CHAPTER 2 CAN MAN CONTROL THE WEATHER?

THE QUESTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE

DENIERS AND DEVOTEES

CHAPTER 3 THE POWER OF NATURE

A POWERFUL AND DYNAMIC WORLD

CHAPTER 4 THE GOD OF NATURE

A GOD WHO USES NATURE

SHAPING HISTORY THROUGH DISASTER

ENDING SODOM AND GOMORRAH

ULTIMATELY IN CONTROL

CHAPTER 5 OUR PAST EXPLAINS OUR PRESENT

A WORLD OF OUR OWN MAKING

ACTS OF THE DEVIL?

CHAPTER 6 PROPHECY REVEALS OUR FUTURE

BIBLE PROPHECY IS OFTEN DUAL

FUTURE CATASTROPHES

WHAT NEXT?

“PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD!”

CHAPTER 7 THERE IS GOOD NEWS!

YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHOICE

The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?

The True Jesus Christ WILL Intervene

Organization of God’s Kingdom

Rulers Under David

Millennial Government

Israel Was BLESSED Under God’s Government

JOY Under God’s Government

Conditions During the Millennium

The WAY to Blessings

How and Why This World Jumped “Off the Track!”

The TRUTH Must Be Restored

RESTORE True Christianity!

What Was Original Christianity Like?

Christ Means Business!

EDUCATION in the World Ahead

A New EDUCATIONAL System

True Education Begins At Home

RESPECT for Teachers

Agriculture and Health

Teachers of JOY!

Who or What Is the Antichrist?

HOW MILLIONS HAVE BEEN DECEIVED

SATAN WANTS YOU TO “MISS THE MARK”

A DOCTRINE OF DISOBEDIENCE

THE HARLOT OF REVELATION 17

WHO IS THIS “WOMAN”?

A PERSECUTING CHURCH

DANIEL’S “LITTLE HORN”

THE PAPACY PREDICTED IN ADVANCE

THE BEAST AND THE WOMAN: TOGETHER AGAIN

MANY ANTICHRISTS!

DIABOLICAL ARGUMENTS

A UNIVERSAL TEACHING

MODERN RELIGIOUS ANARCHY

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

CHRIST LIVES WITHIN THE TRUE CHRISTIAN

RESTORING APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

The Middle East in Prophecy

Jerusalem—Holy City for Three Religions

What Lies Ahead?

Bitter Family Rivalry

Daniel’s Famous Prophecy

Will Russia Control the Middle East?

Who Will Control Jerusalem?

Temple Sacrifices Restored?

Watch for the Abomination of Desolation

Three Prophetic Milestones

Who Rides the Beast?

The King of the North Invades the Middle East

The Final Phases of World War III

Watch the Middle East

Ultimate Peace

Revelation: The Mystery Unveiled!

Can You Know the Future?

Seven Keys to Understanding

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2
CAN MAN CONTROL THE WEATHER?

CHAPTER 3
THE POWER OF NATURE

CHAPTER 4
THE GOD OF NATURE

CHAPTER 5
OUR PAST EXPLAINS OUR PRESENT

CHAPTER 6
PROPHECY REVEALS OUR FUTURE

CHAPTER 7
THERE IS GOOD NEWS!