My assessment of recent events in the Muslim world related to end times prophesies and the nation of Israel. Each Christian tries to see his generation and it's comparison to end times prophesies. Since my childhood, the writings of Hal Lindsay seemed to rule in Christian thought, the teachings of the rapture and the teachings of the Soviet Union invading Israel in the end times along with an Islamic invasion by Egypt, Syria, Iran, Ethiopia and Libya. The presence of Israel in the land was the final identifier for most Christians that the end times are upon us, so all events relating to Israel hold the attention dearly, with those nations mentioned by reference or name in Daniel and Ezekiel. Among the comparisons of scripture with world events were the alignment of nations and peace treaties, comparing scripture with that event, what the possible meaning was and what the possible next step was. Because of the capture of Jerusalem in 1967 and the Temple Mount being in Israeli hands for the first time since the Diaspora, Bible readers and those who studied Eschatology were aroused in their attention and natural prognosticating.
I suppose that is what I am doing here. However, what I am going to try to do is express what I remember as the predictions made on past events since the 1970’s and relate them to how the world has changed since then, to recent events in the Middle East, Russia and the world as of 2014. My intent is to, as I described others, prognosticate I suppose, however, I do not claim this is the final way God is working things out, nor do I claim prophet status, but from my own understanding of scripture and my understanding of world events, if the present world situation is leading to the imminent return of Christ for His church, then the alignment of nations we see now should be explainable from Scripture the closer we get to that final time period. No one knows the future except God Himself, so, I again want to emphasize that I am not making a prophesy, but I do believe we can understand the signs of the times to some degree, especially knowing that Israel is in the land, and Jerusalem is in their hands.
SOME BACKGROUND ON THE NATIONS THAT ARE TO INVADE ISRAEL IN EXEKIEL 38 AND DANIEL 11 Since the re-establishment of Israel in the land, much discussion has been around this being the start of the end times. Some place this starting date at the end of the 18th century with the Zionist movement of the late 1800’s, but most say the establishment of the Nation of Israel in 1947 as the unmistakable event to start the prophetic clock. Ezekiel 37 states: Eze 37:1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which [was] full of bones, Eze 37:2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, [there were] very many in the open valley; and, lo, [they were] very dry. Eze 37:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Eze 37:4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Eze 37:5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: Eze 37:6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I [am] the Lord. Eze 37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. Eze 37:8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but [there was] no breath in them. Eze 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. Eze 37:10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Eze 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Eze 37:12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Eze 37:13 And ye shall know that I [am] the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, Eze 37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken [it], and performed [it], saith the Lord. Eze 37:15 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Eze 37:16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and [for] all the house of Israel his companions: Eze 37:17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. Eze 37:18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou [meanest] by these? Eze 37:19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which [is] in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, [even] with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. Eze 37:20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. Eze 37:21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: Eze 37:22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Eze 37:23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. Eze 37:24 And David my servant [shall be] king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. Eze 37:25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, [even] they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David [shall be] their prince for ever. Eze 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. Eze 37:27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Eze 37:28 And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
The dream of Zionism by Theodore Herzl could be stated at the beginning of this re-establishment of Israel as a nation again, but the formation of the nation in 1947 after the Holocaust of WWII is clearly an obvious possibility, also. It could be that God used the Zionist movement of the 1800’s as the start, with WWII the final event, similar to the return of the Israeli captives in several phases after the 70 year captivity in Babylon.
Once Israel is in the land, when interpreting Scripture as to end times events, we have seen several invasions by their Muslim neighbors in 1947, 1953, 1967, 1973, wars against the PLO in 1982, 1983, attacks by Hizb’ Allah in Lebanon (led by the Iranians), Hamas in Gaza and other factions led by the Muslim Brotherhood. The nation of Israel has no local friends. The list of nations in the end times that attack Israel have been named by their tribal names and ethic names of ancient times that people who were alive at the time of writing would immediately recognize. Ezekiel 38 lists an attack that many believe will happen at the midpoint of the tribulation:
Eze 38:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Eze 38:2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, Eze 38:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I [am] against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: Eze 38:4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts [of armour, even] a great company [with] bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Eze 38:5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Eze 38:6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: [and] many people with thee. Eze 38:7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. Eze 38:8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land [that is] brought back from the sword, [and is] gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Eze 38:9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Eze 38:10 Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, [that] at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: Eze 38:11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, Eze 38:12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places [that are now] inhabited, and upon the people [that are] gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. Eze 38:13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? Eze 38:14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know [it]? Eze 38:15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: Eze 38:16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Eze 38:17 Thus saith the Lord God; [Art] thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days [many] years that I would bring thee against them? Eze 38:18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, [that] my fury shall come up in my face. Eze 38:19 For in my jealousy [and] in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; Eze 38:20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that [are] upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. Eze 38:21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother. Eze 38:22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that [are] with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Eze 38:23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I [am] the Lord.
Eze 39:1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I [am] against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: Eze 39:2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: Eze 39:3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Eze 39:4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that [is] with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and [to] the beasts of the field to be devoured. Eze 39:5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord God. Eze 39:6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I [am] the Lord. Eze 39:7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not [let them] pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I [am] the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Eze 39:8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this [is] the day whereof I have spoken. Eze 39:9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: Eze 39:10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down [any] out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God. Eze 39:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the [noses] of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call [it] The valley of Hamon–gog. Eze 39:12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. Eze 39:13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury [them]; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God. Eze 39:14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. Eze 39:15 And the passengers [that] pass through the land, when [any] seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon–gog. Eze 39:16 And also the name of the city [shall be] Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land. Eze 39:17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, [even] a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood. Eze 39:18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. Eze 39:19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Eze 39:20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. Eze 39:21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. Eze 39:22 So the house of Israel shall know that I [am] the Lord their God from that day and forward. Eze 39:23 And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. Eze 39:24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. Eze 39:25 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; Eze 39:26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made [them] afraid. Eze 39:27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Eze 39:28 Then shall they know that I [am] the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Eze 39:29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.
This attack listing Gog, Magog, Meshech and Tubal, Ethiopia, and Libya, has been a topic widely discussed by Bible scholars, with most agreeing on the following: Meshech and Tubal are peoples who live in the areas we know today as Moscow and Tobolsk in Russia. Some dispute this as their original location was Northern Turkey. During the times of the Soviet Union in the 20th century, the known anti-semitism that Russia had was seen as being personified and responsible for this attack. At the very least, the areas of the Crimea and Ukraine and points north east and north west would contain these people, and that is why the country Russia is considered the nation mentioned here along with the references to the people being from the north.
The other names of nations and peoples; Persia is known as Iran today; Put, or Libya is Libya today; and Ethiopia of ancient times had a different border than the Ethiopia today, but it is similar that most people do not dispute that the Islamic Ethiopia and Sudan of today is also the likely Ethiopia of prophesy despite the changed borders and most likely refers to the tribal connections between the two nations.
Gomer and Togarmah have been identified as the areas of northern Turkey, with some historians claiming that Gomer is what is Eastern Europe today in the area of Poland and Germany and possibly extending as far east as Ukraine. In this collection of nations, we also have the nations that I call the STANS, ie, Kurdistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbijan, and the other central Asian nations that border the old Soviet Union and the Islamic world.
What all these nations were once in our recent past, is part of the Soviet Union, and the historical hatred of the Jews in Eastern Europe and by Stalin made it easy to blame the invasion on Israel by these nations as an attack by the Soviets to claim a warm water port and world domination at the center of all world trade and oil supplies and also to prevent the United States and Western Europe from gaining control of this important geographic area. In addition to the nations mentioned in Ezekiel, there are several more nations mentioned in Daniel chapter 11, Daniel chapter 11 is filled with prophesy that is already fulfilled, and it helps the reader to know what has been fulfilled:
Dan 11:1 Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, [even] I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him. Dan 11:2 And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than [they] all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. Dan 11:3 And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. Dan 11:4 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those. Dan 11:5 And the king of the south shall be strong, and [one] of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion [shall be] a great dominion. Dan 11:6 And in the end of years they shall join themselves together; for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her in [these] times. Dan 11:7 But out of a branch of her roots shall [one] stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail: Dan 11:8 And shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, [and] with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue [more] years than the king of the north. Dan 11:9 So the king of the south shall come into [his] kingdom, and shall return into his own land. Dan 11:10 But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and [one] shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, [even] to his fortress. Dan 11:11 And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, [even] with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand. Dan 11:12 [And] when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down [many] ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened [by it]. Dan 11:13 For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches. Dan 11:14 And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall. Dan 11:15 So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither [shall there be any] strength to withstand. Dan 11:16 But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed. Dan 11:17 He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand [on his side], neither be for him. Dan 11:18 After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause [it] to turn upon him. Dan 11:19 Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found. Dan 11:20 Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes [in] the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle. Dan 11:21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Dan 11:22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant. Dan 11:23 And after the league [made] with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people. Dan 11:24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do [that] which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: [yea], and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time. Dan 11:25 And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him. Dan 11:26 Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain. Dan 11:27 And both these kings' hearts [shall be] to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end [shall be] at the time appointed. Dan 11:28 Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart [shall be] against the holy covenant; and he shall do [exploits], and return to his own land. Dan 11:29 At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. Dan 11:30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. Dan 11:31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily [sacrifice], and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. Dan 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do [exploits]. Dan 11:33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, [many] days. Dan 11:34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. Dan 11:35 And [some] of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make [them] white, [even] to the time of the end: because [it is] yet for a time appointed. Dan 11:36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Dan 11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. Dan 11:38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Dan 11:39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge [and] increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
The previous verses were here to keep context of Daniel’s prophesy, but the timeline changes within Daniel’s prophesy, and starting from verse 40, we are no longer in the timeline of already fulfilled prophesy, but future prophesy to come:
Dan 11:40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. Dan 11:41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many [countries] shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, [even] Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. Dan 11:42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. Dan 11:43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians [shall be] at his steps. Dan 11:44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. Dan 11:45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
The ‘him’ of Daniel 11:40 is the future antichrist. Something happens that the nations of the King of the South and King of the North that causes them to think that by striking through Israel, the ‘Glorious land’ of Dan 11:41, that they are actually striking the future antichrist.
The kings of the North and South have been identified by the previous verses in Daniel 11 as Egypt (King of the South) and Syria (King of the North). These two nations are Islamic and for centuries Bible scholars thought that just the Islamic connection made them enemies of Israel, but the politics of the world are more complicated usually, and in this case, I think there is something much more than just the Islamic hatred of Jews.
THE UNFOLDING OF EVENTS AS I SEE IT AS A POSSIBLE SCENARIO IN OUR FUTURE
The spiritual condition of our world is changing to one that is submitting to Islam more and more. Western Europe was once a Roman Catholic stronghold, but daily the influence of Islamic intimidation is undeniable. This is possible only because Europe is no longer a Christian entity as a whole. Many Churches are now secular buildings or have become bars, restaurants, and even mosques as more and more Europeans have stopped going to Church or believing in the Bible at all.
In the book of Revelation, chapter 17, we read the following: Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. Rev 17:7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. Rev 17:9 And here [is] the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, [and] the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. Rev 17:13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. Rev 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him [are] called, and chosen, and faithful. Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. Rev 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
In the Bible, when the word WHORE is used, in most cases it involves the idolatry of the nations that claim allegiance to The LORD, namely Israel. Idolatry is referenced to sexual immorality and infidelity in relation to who God is and how we are supposed to be related to Him, as a family, as a marriage, as a relationship of love.
When keeping the same sense of understanding of the Bible, the WHORE here in Revelation 17 is a religious system. For centuries, mainstream Protestantism thought this was the Roman Catholic Church for several reasons, among them, the reference of verse Rev 17:9 And here [is] the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
It is known that the prophesy of the 4 Kingdoms spoken of in Daniel chapter 2, there are 4 world kingdoms that will be leading kingdoms with complete power over nations, specifically, kingdoms that are related to Israel and the Jewish people in their influence to the world and the history of Israel. Daniel’s prophetic dream was interpreted in this way:
Dan 2:31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness [was] excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof [was] terrible. Dan 2:32 This image's head [was] of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, Dan 2:33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Dan 2:34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet [that were] of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Dan 2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. Dan 2:36 This [is] the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Dan 2:37 Thou, O king, [art] a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. Dan 2:38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou [art] this head of gold. Dan 2:39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. Dan 2:40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all [things]: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. Dan 2:41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. Dan 2:42 And [as] the toes of the feet [were] part of iron, and part of clay, [so] the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. Dan 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. Dan 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, [but] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Dan 2:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream [is] certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
In the final part of the image Daniel sees, the feet and toes are the final kingdom of man, set up by God, that has an influence of the people of Israel. It has been widely accepted that these kingdoms were Nebudchannezer, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome; The Roman Empire being the final manifestation of the kingdom that rules over the Earth and God’s people Israel in some controlling way.
Because this final part of the vision is the Roman Empire, the mainstream Protestants believed this was another reason for the Roman Catholic Church to be this WHORE of Revelation 17; the 7 Mountains of Rome and the Roman Empire of Daniel.
The mountains in Revelation, however, have also been interpreted as Kingdoms. These kingdoms would be 7 kingdoms that have had influence over Israel and God’s people, namely: 1.) Babylon (At the start of civilization after the Flood) 2.) Egypt (Israel in bondage 400 years) 3.) Babylon (At the Jewish captivity, Nebuchadnezzer) 4.) Media Persia (The Army that defeated Babylon) 5.) Greece (Greece ruled that area during the time of Cleopatra and Alexander) 6.) Rome (From the time of Jesus) 7.) Revived Roman Empire (Daniel’s toes of mirey clay, also possibly the final Babylon of Revelation 18)
The WHORE being from a revived Roman Empire, then, would be the main religion of that revived Roman Empire, which historically was Roman Catholicism. The Reformation had a huge impact, but Protestantism never became the dominant religion of Europe.
Historically, though, Roman Catholicism has not always ruled the majority of the Mediterranean world. Since the inception of Islam, there has been many wars and overthrows of nations by Islamic armies in once Christian nations. When Constantine declared the Roman world as ‘Christian’, that Roman world included the entire Mediterranean world of North Africa, Israel to Spain, and all of southern Europe.
Islamic conquests can be listed as follows: Byzantine–Arab Wars: 634–750 ; Under the Rashidun ; Under the Umayyads ; ;Conquest of Persia and Mesopotamia: 633–651 ; Conquest of Transoxiana: 662–751 ; Conquest of Sindh: 664–712 ; Conquest of Hispania (711–718) and Septimania (719–720) ; Attempts to Conquer the Caucasus: 711–750; End of the Umayyad conquests: 718–750 ; Conquest of Nubia: 700–1606 ; Incursions into southern Italy: 831–902 ; Conquest of Anatolia: 1060–1360 Byzantine-Ottoman Wars: 1299–1453 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests
These references to Islam are important when we consider: Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. It cannot be denied that the Roman Catholic Church murdered a lot of people who disagreed with their doctrine, and killed them intentionally as heretics, and this is also outside of the Spanish Inquisition. However, when we consider the spread of Christianity after the death of Christ, and look at a map of the nations that Islam conquered, we see that the original locations of the earliest churches are in conquered lands:
AREAS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD TODAY
According to FOXE’S BOOK OF MARTYRS, the lives and areas of missionary life were in lands that have been conquered by Islam, such as Alexandria, Pakistan, India, Edessa in Mesopotamia, Ethiopia, and what is now Iran and northern Assyria and southern Russia
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/foxe/martyrs/files/fox101.htm http://www.historytoday.com/philip-jenkins/forgotten-christian-world
My point in all this, is to point out how the known differences in the practice of religions makes a person wonder if the WHORE of Babylon in Revelation 17 is not the Roman Catholic Church as a singular entity or if it is a combination of religions of the area during the end times. Recent Bible scholarship recognizes that Protestantism had accurate doctrine when addressing the non-biblical Roman Catholic beliefs, but never saw their own demise and heresy and outright apostasy. The lack of a specific religion being named as the WHORE also leads the serious student to wonder: Is this just one religion? Is it a joining of religions into one? Is it an amalgamation of religion in general all claiming truth while claiming themselves to be separate?
OUR GENERAL WORLD RELIGIOUS APPEARANCE AND POLITICAL SITUATION 5/10/2014
Our world situation is clearly showing a rise of Islam that is undeniable. We have seen Roman Catholicism claim that those of the Islamic faith go to heaven if they are sincere, totally denying the Gospel that the Roman Catholic Church claims it is the defender of.
(841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”330)
We also know that many in the Protestant world are holding ecumenical meetings with Islamic leaders, President Bush went out of his way to call Islam a religion of peace, and the world’s media appear afraid to say anything negative about Islam in general. The continent of Europe has so many Islamic immigrants that concerned authors and political observers have termed this infiltration by Islamics as the formation of EURABIA: http://youtu.be/VMx16duLjSw
This Islamic immigration in high numbers into Western Europe is changing the culture and politics of several nations already, all trying to accommodate the new Islamic immigrants at the loss of national identity and protection of individual citizens who have traditionally lived in those lands for centuries.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-bawer/islamization-of-europe-the-numbers-dont-lie/ http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/frontpagemag-com/video-islams-takeover-of-europe/
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4129/islamization-belgium-netherlands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqfbeuZf-n8
The decline of Christianity is easily measured by the numbers of churches are used by people, and in Europe, that decline is compared to the loss of churches by bombing in WWII: “A Catholic church in the UK has been sold to the Muslim community. St Peter’s Catholic church in Cobridge will become the Madina Mosque. The site was put on sale following a dramatic decline in the number of parishioners. A spokeswoman for the archdiocese declared that “the parish of Cobridge has a long history, but in recent times the number of Catholics in the area has shrunk to such an extent that those attending Mass at St. Peter’s were simply no longer able to maintain a priest and the church buildings”. Islam is replacing Christianity as first religion everywhere in Europe. In France, the country of famous Catholic intellectuals such as Emmanuel Mounier, Georges Bernanos, Francois Mauriac, Jacques Maritain and Teilhard de Chardin, dozens of churches have been razed to make way for mosques, showrooms and malls. The last cases are in Saint -Blaise du Breuil, Allier, Saint -Pie- X Hérault and Saint- Jacques d’Abbeville in the Somme. The Observatory for Religious Heritage claims that “for the first time places of worship are destroyed for no apparent reason and turned into parking lots, restaurants, boutiques, gardens and homes”. According to the French Senate, 2,800 Christian religious buildings are now at risk of being demolished. France now has just 9.000 priests measured against 40,000 during the last war. Many churches are replaced by mosques. In Quai Malakoff, Nantes, the old Church of St. Christopher became the Mosque of Forqane. The Church of Saint -Aubin du Pavoil was the first to be demolished in the western region of France since 1789, that year of the French Revolution and radical atheism. Art historian Didier Rykner, who directs the magazine Tribune de l’Art, writes that “for the first time since the Second World War churches have been reduced to rubble”. Last June, the Church of Saint- Eloi in Vierzon ceased Christian worship and became a Muslim place.
The National Federation of the Great Mosque of Paris, the Council of Democratic Muslims of France and the Collectif Banlieues asked the Catholic Church, in a spirit of “inter-religious solidarity”, to rent the empty churches to the Muslims for their Friday prayers. The symbol of this rampant secularization and/or Islamisation of French territory is the church of Saint- Pierre -aux -Liens, in Gesté. We are in the region of the “Chouannerie”, the Catholic dissidents who suffered most in the Vendée wars against the armies of Robespierre and where in fact most of the churches have been rebuilt since 1800. The historic church has fallen under the blows of the “deconstruction”, as the socialist municipalities dubbed the destruction of Christian sites, borrowing the term from the postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida. Robert Schuman once called it “the Europe of Cathedrals”. But today German cathedrals are put on sale on eBay, looking for potential buyers. The church of St. Bernard in Brandenburg is the twenty-fifth to be put on the market by the Diocese of Berlin in the last ten years. Starting price: 120.000 euros. Despite the fact that “Papa Emeritus” Joseph Ratzinger comes from Germany and the current German President Joachim Gauck is a Protestant pastor, Germany is literally selling its churches. Some people evoke the “Gott ist tot” (God is dead) of Friedrich Nietzsche. According to a report in the weekly magazine Spirit, in the next two years 15,000 of the 45,000 existing churches in Germany, a third of the total, will be demolished or sold. But this is not an economic problem. The churches are closing down because they are empty. It is the phenomenon of the “Konfessionslos”, the Germans without religion. It is estimated that every 75 seconds a German leaves the church. The church of the Holy Family in Barmstedt has been demolished. Between 1990 and 2010, the German Evangelical Church closed 340 churches. Recently in Hamburg, a Lutheran church was purchased by the Muslim community. The German weekly Der Spiegel called it “the Last Supper”. In Spandau, the church of St. Raphael is now a grocery store, while in Karl Marx’s town the churches are turned into gyms. In Cologne, a church has been transformed into a luxurious residence with a private pool. Take Frankfurt am Main. In the 50’s, when Konrad Adenauer was the chancellor, 430,000 Protestants lived in the city. Today there are 110,000. A quarter of the churches in the city have been closed. The famous leaning tower that vies with Pisa, the campanile located in the German town of Bad Frankenhausen, no longer calls for the faithful. Meanwhile in Petriplatz, in the central Mitte district of Berlin, there is the project of a multicultural building unique in Europe: a mosque, a church and a synagogue all under the same roof. The building will be symbolically built on the ruins of the old church of St. Peter. They call it a “religious amalgam”. In the Netherlands, two Christian buildings close every week. It is not uncommon to find ritual objects once used in the Dutch churches in Indonesia, Congo, Philippines but also in the former communist countries, such as Ukraine. The Netherlands has, in fact, become the world’s most important exporter of religious objects. Here for the first time secularization has become a business. “In the Netherlands, the Catholic presence on Sunday was the highest in Europe, ninety per cent”, said Rev. Jan Stuyt of Nijmegen. “Now it is ten percent”. Every year sixty places of worship shut down, are sold or demolished. Between 1970 and 2008, 205 Catholic churches were demolished in the Netherlands and 148 converted into libraries, restaurants, gyms, apartments and mosques. The Dutch Ministry of Culture has even drawn up guidelines on dealing with the conversion of disused or abandoned churches. The Fitih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam was a Catholic church. The church of St. Jacobus, one of the oldest of the city of Utrecht, a cradle of Catholicism, has just been transformed into a luxury residence by a group specializing in the conversion of churches. The Protestant church loses 60,000 participants each year. At this rate, it will cease to exist by 2050, according to church officials. In Helmond, a town south of Bilthoven, a supermarket has moved in a former church. A library was opened in a Dominican church in Maastricht, while two churches in Utrecht and Amsterdam have recently been converted into mosques. In the ultra liberal and tolerant Netherlands, these are known as “the dead churches”. These are the symbols of the existential condition of the West: the vacuum in the “the evening land” will be filled by the religion coming from the East, “the morning land".”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14008#.U3A9EPldV8E
While the Islamic religion is gaining political acceptance, the people themselves of these nations in Europe are NOT accepting the Islamic religion and what is obviously the imposition of Islam upon themselves who now appear to not want any religion. Numerous groups exist to expose the Islamic agendas and also stand up in what they believe is a defense against Islam in their nation: Stop the Islamization of America http://freedomdefense.typepad.com/sioa/ Stop the Islamization of England http://sioeengland.wordpress.com/ Stop the Islamization of Europe http://sioeeu.wordpress.com/ The list goes on. It is clear the people do not approve of the Islamic influence on their culture and are prepared to commit defend themselves against it. When considering the verse in Revelation 17, this appears to most likely explained at how whatever religion is taken over and enforced in the revived Roman Empire, it is not going to be popular: Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. The Muslim brotherhood has been central to the influence of the Islamic infiltration into Europe, an invasion through immigration until a critical mass in the population is reached, where special rights will be demanded, then once the population of Muslims is at the next point, the initial efforts to subjugate the non Muslim to Islamic laws, until the final insistence of conversion or death. “Since its founding in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hizb al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) has profoundly influenced the political life of the Middle East. Its motto is telling: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."[1] While the Brotherhood's radical ideas have shaped the beliefs of generations of Islamists, over the past two decades, it has lost some of its power and appeal in the Middle East, crushed by harsh repression from local regimes and snubbed by the younger generations of Islamists who often prefer more radical organizations. But the Middle East is only one part of the Muslim world. Europe has become an incubator for Islamist thought and political development. Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations. Unlike the larger Islamic community, the Muslim Brotherhood's ultimate goal may not be simply "to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be," but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States.[2] Four decades of teaching and cultivation have paid off. The student refugees who migrated from the Middle East forty years ago and their descendants now lead organizations that represent the local Muslim communities in their engagement with Europe's political elite. Funded by generous contributors from the Persian Gulf, they preside over a centralized network that spans nearly every European country.” http://www.meforum.org/687/the-muslim-brotherhoods-conquest-of-europe This is important because of what I believe the end time will reveal. The takeover of Europe by Islamic friendly forces, combined with a dead Christianity and massive unbelieving groups and populations lead to a deadly combination.
In the last 3 weeks, as I continue writing, the Pope has met with Rick Warren, Joel Osteen and a Muslim, even holding prayers with Jewish leaders and Hamas leaders at the Vatican:
For the first time in history, Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran will be heard at the Vatican on Sunday, in a move by Pope Francis to usher in peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Francis issued the invitation to Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit last week to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/06/06/Islamic-prayers-to-be-held-at-the-Vatican.html
Rick Warren builds bridge to Muslims Through years of outreach, Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren is part of an effort named King's Way that's attempting to bring evangelical Christians and Muslims together. By JIM HINCH / FOR THE REGISTER Published: Feb. 23, 2012 Updated: Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m. The Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and one of America's most influential Christian leaders, has embarked on an effort to heal divisions between evangelical Christians and Muslims by partnering with Southern California mosques and proposing a set of theological principles that includes acknowledging that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
The effort, informally dubbed King's Way, caps years of outreach between Warren and Muslims. Warren has broken Ramadan fasts at a Mission Viejo mosque, met Muslim leaders abroad and addressed 8,000 Muslims at a national convention in Washington D.C. Saddleback worshippers have invited Muslims to Christmas dinner and played interfaith soccer at a picnic in Irvine attended by more than 300 people. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/muslims-341669-warren-saddleback.html The connection to weak, liberal and outright apostate ‘Christian’ religious leaders to Islam now is rapidly advancing, and due to the Biblical ignorance of the American public in general, this is going on with little excitement from self proclaimed Christians themselves. It is no wonder that Jesus said of the Laodicean church, Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Rev 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The recent events in Syria are alarming, also to our political situation, and also must be addressed, for the group that is threatening to overthrow Baghdad at the time of this writing, is the same group that President Obama was going to send American arms and provide military support for in the overthrowing of Syria’s President Assad.
I will try to wrap up this paper with the following conclusions, and allow the readers to dig deeper if they wish, but what has been presented so far shows the following political and spiritual events are most likely going to happen soon:
1. A decline in Christian influence in American and world affairs 2. An increase in Islamic influence in Western Europe with willing leadership roles filled by Apostate Christian leaders from America and the Pope, also 3. The amalgamation of all religions, in name only, under the umbrella of a singular name, CHRISLAM, or a form of this, that will claim a God of love and acceptance, all the while denying the exclusiveness of Jesus Christ and His atoning death on the Cross and the Salvation offered through Him alone, instead saying that all religions are equal in value and belief 4. The forced acceptance of Islam in all corners, demanding that people affirm that it is truly a ‘religion of peace’ in all nations, despite the violence given to those who disagree. 5. An increase in Islamic leadership in Western Europe, along with an abandonment of Biblical Christianity, with legal actions enforcing speech codes against those who Speak what the Bible says about sin, Jesus Christ according to the Bible, and the exclusive nature of Christ being the Messiah. This will accompany forced acceptance of sinful lifestyles and practices as being seen already in England, Germany and Canada, where it is considered ‘hate speech’ to speak the Biblical truth about homosexuality, drunkenness, or Islam, or even discuss differences in Biblical doctrine between differing Christian denominations.
These events will lead to what I see as a complete mix, as water mixes with mirey clay, of a religious hodgepodge, one where those who consider their original religion truth, and learn to hate what is imposed upon them, whether they were genuine practitioners or not, to have a new label of belief imposed upon them will be offensive.
Once this new religion is in place in most circles, at some point during this, the rapture will occur, and all Bible believers will be taken from the earth to meet Jesus in the clouds. Millions will convert after this during the now occurring 7-year tribulation after the rapture, however, during the early years of the tribulation, the final and most dangerous form of the one world religion will take place, with the Islamic-Christian-other religion controlled superpower of western Europe.
This is the time of the entering of the Anti-Christ, the leader of the revived Roman empire, leading what I believe will be a mostly Islamic Europe with ‘Christian’ themed propaganda and catch phrases, but under the muscle and punishment system of Islam. This man will be leading Western Europe for 3.5 years until a significant event happens with what I believe is the first major battle of the mid-tribulation war; the invasion of Jerusalem by Egypt and Syria.
In the last several years, we have seen the Ikwahn, or Muslim Brotherhood take over Libya, Egypt and make strides in Libya and Morocco, and also be the political driving force in Syria. While most people use the phrase Al-Qaeda in describing the ISIS group, their formation came from members of the Muslim Brotherhood as the money group that raises cash and purchases the weapons.
I believe that due to the Islamic/apostate Christian belief system of the Anti-Christ and his followers, when he sets up his office to run his affairs in Israel after signing his 7 year treaty at the start of the tribulation, Egypt and Syria will be furious. Egypt has thrown out the Muslim Brotherhood and Syria will be victorious against the ISIS forces in general because of assistance from Iran. Seeing these forces, led by the Muslim Brotherhood try to overthrow their nations, and to now see them gain political power and set up remote offices in Israel, Egypt and Syria will see this as a desperate opportunity to invade Israel and destroy the Anti-Christ’s office, his person, and engage his army which must come from far away while their own forces are nearby.
Due to historic pronouncements of judgment by God against those who have harmed Israel and knowing that Egypt and Syria supported many terrorist attacks against the Jews, it should come as no surprise that God allows the Anti-Christ army to defeat these combined armies with an invasion from the sea. However, this will be a bloody war, one where there is no time or money to rebuild aircraft and tanks lost in combat, the anti-Christ’s army will be tried and most likely partially depleted of supplies and men.
It is at this time that the invasion from Russia, Turkey, Iran, Libya and Ethiopia will occur, for when the enemy is at his weakest is the best time to strike, and according to the Bible, the anti-Christ’s army will invade from north of Israel, strike south to Egypt and spoil the Egyptians when bad tidings from the east will trouble him, most likely news of the impending invasion from Russia and Turkey and their allies.
Students of the Bible know the ending, Russia and her allies are destroyed by God and Israel is spared. It is also likely that during this time period that the Anti-Christ receives his ‘fatal’ wound that he is miraculously healed from by Satan, and then begins the final 3.5 years of the tribulation totally controlled by Satan himself.
While these are exciting times, the concerns are not of politics, but one of, What will you do with Jesus?
Our time on this nation and world are coming to an end, and much quicker than you think.
Repent of your sin, confess to Jesus you are a sinner in need of a saviour and cry out to Him to save your soul, receive Him into your heart by faith, and live for Him. Your eternal destiny depend on it.
