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The Future According to Almighty God Armageddon,
The Rapture of the Church,
The Second
Coming of Christ, The Book of Revelation, The Great Tribulation,
The Apocalypse, The Prophets Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and John,
World War III, The End of The Age, The Millennium, False Prophets, The
Antichrist, The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Day of the Lord, The Grapes
of Wrath, 666 and The Mark of the Beast. What do these terms have
in common? They are all related to the study of Bible prophecy.
And very few topics are more misunderstood than Bible Prophecy. The study of Bible Prophecy is one of
the most controversial topics in the Christian Church today. Most
Christian Churches ignore or are ignorant of the significance prophecy plays
in the Bible. Approximately 30% of the Bible is prophetic in
nature. Since the Bible is God's Word and 30% of that Word has to do
with prophecy, should not Christians have a significant interest in this
area? When studying Bible Prophecy, it is
essential that the various prophecies are understood in their correct context
and application. Bible Prophecy deals with the Jew, the Christian and
the non-believer. Failure to correctly discern these applications
leaves the reader in constant turmoil, unable to resolve Scripture: ... the Church is not Israel and Israel is not the
Church. Some of the most confusing prophetic voices today teach that
there is no distinction between Israel and the Church,
and that the Church today is spiritual Israel and is destined to fulfill the
promises of God to that chosen nation. There is a God in Heaven that reveals
secrets ... (Daniel 2:28)
The Lord God Himself, the Alpha and Omega, the
Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, has ordained prophecy for the
expressed purpose of proving He is Who He says He is. In fact, in the
Old Testament of the Bible, Moses asked God Whose Name he (Moses) should
declare to the Israelites when they ask Who commissioned him to lead them out
of Egypt into the land that would later be known as the Land of
Israel. God's succinct reply to Moses said it all. Almighty
God has spoken and inspired men to write His Word into the collection of Books
we now know as the Bible.
But how does He prove to the human race that this is His Word and that He is
Who He says He is? He foretells the future to His prophets who speak
His Word and write it down for future generations before the events take
place. This marks the uniqueness of the Bible, as the Only Book
that not only claims a Resurrected Savior, but as the Only Book with the
ability to accurately foretell the future, authenticating God's stamp of approval
Although a Russian-backed Arab invasion of Israel is
foretold in the prophecy of Ezekiel
(38, 39)
after Israel is restored as a nation (Ezekiel
36, 37)
this invasion is not the
Battle of Armageddon. While the prophetic language in Ezekiel seems to
describe Armageddon in many ways, there are several reasons to differentiate
this invasion from the Battle of Armageddon (Prophecy Watch, 212-214).
It should be noted that some Bible Prophecy scholars see Ezekiel 38 starting
at the mid-point of the Tribulation Period. Either way, by the time
Ezekiel 39 comes to pass, it seems Armageddon is the final result of the
battles. This invasion (unsuccessful by the way)
may result in the emergence of the Antichrist who arrives
on the scene just in time to take credit for the devastating defeat of the
Russian-Arabian alliance. If so, the Antichrist would then institute
the false peace covenant as the False Messiah of Israel. The Bible
clearly indicates that the overwhelming majority of the world is fooled by
the Antichrist into believing he is the "messiah", albeit a
political one (even and
especially Israel!). The term Antichrist doesn't just mean
"opposed" to Christ but the name "Antichrist" actually
means "instead of" or "counterfeit" Christ. He will
seem to embody all of the qualities the non-believing world expects from
Jesus Christ but does not represent the true Biblical portrait of Him. The Bible is explicitly clear,
the visible Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the Earth occurs at the Battle
of Armageddon when He defeats the Antichrist's armies, not just a World War
II Axis-style alliance (Revelation 19:11-21). It is quite possible that the
world will mistake the Russian-Arabian invasion of Israel as Armageddon and
gladly receive the Antichrist as false messiah
(oops!) unwittingly ushering in the real Battle of Armageddon a short seven
years later. When Jesus spoke of the Rapture of the Church in Matthew 24:38-39, He noted that it will be a surprise to the non-believing inhabitants
of the Earth. The armed invasion of Israel in Ezekiel 38-39 will also
be a surprise. Ezekiel 38-39 seems to indicate that Israel will
stand alone but with her God in this battle. Henry Kissinger said: "The main aim of any American
President is to prevent World War III.
Second, that no American President would risk World War III because of
territories occupied by Israel. Three
(sic), the Russians know this."
Israel knows this as well. Since the early 1970's, Israel has
maintained a ready force of fighter-bomber aircraft equipped with nuclear weapons with one primary target in mind: Moscow. Israel can
comprehend Old Testament Bible Prophecy too and they know that they will be
facing Moscow in the next major prophetic war of Ezekiel 38-39. US-made
F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers were the first assigned with nuclear weapons;
they have since been augmented with American-made F-16 Falcon fighter-bombers
for the nuclear delivery. A poor man's ICBM …
When
is the Battle of Armageddon? The actual date of Armageddon is a hidden mystery of
prophecy. Yet it is a temporary mystery because the Day of the Lord,
another term for Armageddon, cannot be known and yet can be known. What
absurd paradox is this? This is but one of several mysteries God presents
us with in Scripture. When Jesus was talking to His disciples, He was
speaking on several topics including the End of the Age, Armageddon and the Rapture of the Church. He told them they could not know the day and hour of the
Rapture but that they could know the season (Matthew 24:32-35). Jesus is coming two more
times, first (invisible to the world) at the Rapture of the Church, as a
Thief in the Night (Matthew 24:36-51) and again (visible to the world) at the
Battle of Armageddon (Zechariah 14).
"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour
wherein the Son of Man Cometh" (Matthew 25:1-13)
The Day of the Lord, the Battle
of Armageddon, cannot be
known right now because the Church must first be Raptured
so that the Antichrist can be revealed (2nd Thessalonians 2:1-12). After the Antichrist makes a
seven-year peace treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15-18) he (the Antichrist) will break the
covenant 1,260 days into the "week" of years (Daniel 9:27b,c). Now (the middle of the week of 7 years) wise Jews will know when
Christ returns because there are references to 1,290 days and 1,335 days (Daniel 12:11-12). The Battle of Armageddon begins 1,260
days after the Antichrist breaks the false peace agreement with Israel
(Armageddon is at the end of the 7 years of the false peace accord). The
indication is that the Millennial Reign of Christ begins at the end of the
1,335 days. That God will be dealing uniquely with Israel and not the
Church during this period seems to be confirmed in the fact that the
Christian Church was not present for the first 483 years of the Decree upon
Israel and Jerusalem; therefore it does not follow that the
Christian Church will be present for the last 7 years of the Decree.
There will, of course, be Jews and non-believing Gentiles converted to Christ
during the Tribulation Period. In the Book of Daniel, the prophet Daniel
is told that the mystery of the End Times is sealed up until the Last Days, (Daniel 12:4) and that many people will travel
extensively and human knowledge will be dramatically increased (Daniel 12:4). During the first 5900 years of
recorded human history from 4000 B.C.
to 1900 A.D. men conveyed themselves mainly on horseback. In 1903, the
Wright brothers were thrilled when the world's first motorized airplane flew
a few hundred feet. Between 1900-1969, in just 69 short years, men
developed mass production of automobiles, massive steel passenger ships,
refined the airplane and evolved it into the jumbo jet airliner, left the
bonds of Earth and orbited the sky, set foot on the Moon 240,000 miles away
in the cold vacuum of space, created the television, the computer and the
inter-continental nuclear bomb. All in only 69 short years! And
yet the optimism for man in the 20th century has been stained by the fact
that the major wars claimed 87,000,000 (that's right million) lives while
another 83,000,000+ have been lost in the various pogroms, insurrections,
etc. The total for the highly-educated 20th century: 170,000,000+
indicating man's intelligence is not capable of
breeding true peace. "Watch
therefore: for ye know not what Hour your Lord doth Come" (Matthew 24:42)
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