The REAL Armageddon

  With all the talk these days about Armageddon and the end of the world, I thought this article by J.R. Church through a "Prophecy In The News" email I received today was spot on. I noticed that most of the new TV series focus on various end of the world scenarios and the word "Armageddon" is thrown about loosely. The following article is not that long and it boils down the true future  Biblical event called Armageddon to it's essence. Please read Psalm 2 and Revelation 19:19-20. Ezekiel 8 shows the religious undermining's that are interlaced with what is called the Military-Industrial-Complex that Ezekiel 38 thru Ezekiel 39 as well as Zechariah, Daniel and Revelation 13 prophecy about. Notice how all the same "players" involved with Israel's history are still at it today and making headlines as I write this. Iran(Persia), The Kurds(Medes), Syria(Assyrians), Turkey(Togarmah), Russia(Magog), Libya(Put), Egypt(Cush), Somalia, Europe(Gomer), not to mention Israel's old nemesis the Philistines which are now called Palestinians(PLO).  Isaiah 17 speaks of one of the oldest cities in the world, Damascus, Syria as becoming a "ruinous heap". Now that has never occurred in history as yet. You see what is happening to Syria today. Things are happening very fast now people. Jesus made it clear that the end would come fast and compared it to "birth pangs" in Matthew 24. He used the analogy of birth because all humanity would understand the comparison. Here is the article as cut and pasted it from my email: 

Armageddon Is a Different Kind of War Zechariah 12: 2-3 covers the action of the war! From the Archives of J.R. Church Armageddon is a different kind of war. All of the nations in the world will be involved. The events leading up to this battle have been predicted in the Bible – some of which have been fulfilled in this generation. In the Bible, we find a curious story replete with divine judgment. Zechariah 12:2-3 covers the action of the war and gives in ominous tones the perennial hazards of making war on Jerusalem and Israel: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem." “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12: 2 & 3). All those who tangle with Jerusalem will be “cut in pieces” indeed, and then some! Despite the best efforts of the world’s most capable and fanatic invaders through 4,000 years of bloody conflict, Jerusalem has survived, and it will continue to survive. The armies of the world will come together to do their fearsome work – in the valley of Megiddo in quiet Galilee. In that valley, “called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon,” at least two hundred million soldiers, armed with the ultimate weapons of war, will stage mankind’s most effective attempt at suicide. Blood will flow, according to Revelation 14:20, “up to the bridles of the horses.” Jerusalem, nearly 100 miles away from the combat zone, will not be spared the effects of this horrifying conflict. Zechariah 14:2 laments: “The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity” (Zechariah 14:2). Considering the pure numbers of the invading forces, no portion of little Israel will be safe from actual combat. And Jerusalem, God’s city, veteran of invasions, rapings, and lootings from time immemorial, will have to endure this one last catastrophe. But in this final hour of terrible conflict, something miraculous will transpire among the people of Israel. Pressed to the wall; with their Promised Land torn apart by a vicious war; with their historic fears of national annihilation coming to reality before their eyes... ...the Jews turn to God. They have always done this, but in this case, they turn to their Messiah at last! Jesus said clearly enough in John 14:6: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” In a time when their need for divine help is greater than ever before, the Jewish people will turn to their native Son, the Carpenter of Nazareth. Jesus will be accepted as the true Messiah of Israel. Isaiah 53 (the conscience of the Jewish people) will be read with a new understanding in Israel. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not…But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” Whether out of the desperation of the tragic moment, or from the testimony of the Christian witnesses, or from a national realization that disaster has ever followed the Jews since the time of Christ, the Jewish nation will completely awaken to Christ. They will finally say, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.” This is the password to salvation for the Jews. Jesus told them while He was on the subject of the destruction of Jerusalem in His prophecy recorded in Matthew 23:37-39 that He would not return until they welcomed Him in the words of Psalm 118:26: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” It will be the greatest spiritual awakening in all of history as the Jewish people come to Christ by the millions. It will be a true Day of Atonement in Israel as Zechariah 13:1 prophesies: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.” Also, Romans 11:26 says, “And so all Israel will be saved.” God is practical. He promised deliverance to Israel when the nation is faithful. He demonstrated this by bringing them out of Egypt with a miraculous deliverance in the time of Moses. He will do no less in the time of the Armageddon. The Jewish people will receive Christ. There will be no time to build a lot of churches or to ponder a lot of Scripture when Armageddon is going on in your land! The nation will be saved, as a nation, instanteously – and on the battlefield. It is as if an electric current of truth is shot through everyone at once. God’s rewards are immediate. The tide of Armageddon will change abruptly as the Lord empowers Israel with new-found military strength. The weakest buck private in the field will fight like King David, and the generals will be like God in battle, as Zechariah 12:8-9 describes it: “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God. “…and it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12: 8-9). The Israelis have been tough before – in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, but the world hasn’t seen anything yet. The Lord Himself will come to lead His people in this final world war according to Zechariah 14: 3-4: “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives” (Zachariah 14: 3-4). Jesus will return to His beloved Mount of Olives, adjacent to the Jerusalem Temple site, where He used to retire in the evenings for prayer. And cataclysmic things will happen. Militarily, those who attacked Jerusalem are in for a bad time of it, to say the least. Zechariah 14:12 says: “...the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” John’s description in Revelation 19:11 & 14 sees a magnificent scene of Jesus arriving on a white horse at the head of a heavenly army: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war…And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” Revelation 19 goes on to picture fowls eating the flesh of kings, captains, and mighty men. The antichrist “and the kings of the earth, and their armies” in verse 19 attempt war with Christ and His heavenly troops with predictable outcome. John sees no scenes of lengthy battle, and Revelation goes immediately to the disposal of the antichrist and his schemes for world domination. He gets the “lake of fire” in verse 20: “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” The troops of the antichrist, who represent the enormous armies of the Gentile nations of the world (told of in verse 21), are “slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse…and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” This supernatural ending to the Battle of Armageddon is not new in biblical accounts. We may say that there are natural wars and supernatural wars in connection with Jewish history, which is the story of a people whose destiny is controlled by God. The deliverance of the Jews from Egypt showed the loss of the Egyptian forces when they tried to cross the Red Sea on the dry land used by the Jews. David experienced a supernatural victory over Goliath in response to his faithfulness. Joshua demolished the walls of Jericho with trumpets. The Maccabees experienced the miraculous touch of God when they defeated Antiochus and rededicated the Second Temple. Armageddon follows suit, demonstrating that God responds to true faith. When the Gentile nations first march against the Holy Land, they certainly have no fear of the little Israeli army. They plunder Jerusalem and set up their blood-letting in Galilee, indifferent to the great people whose land they desecrate. But what a different story when the Jews turn to Christ! How shocking for the Gentiles to suddenly face an army of King Davids with Jesus Christ at the head of it! We have heard of supernatural events in Israel’s recent wars with the Arabs, but the final conflict will be the most spectacular and supernatural war in history. On that occasion, the issue will be atheism versus faith in God, and as we have seen, God takes a hand in it. It is a picture of vicious Armageddon. Armageddon, thankfully, is the end of every kind of war. It marks the return of Jesus to the earth for an extended stay and a new kingdom. The great age of “peace on earth, good will toward men” will be ushered in at the climax of Armageddon, and Jesus Christ will be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords! Published by J.R. Church in September 1992. ...a word about J.R.Church In 1979, J.R.Church, founder of Prophecy in the News, started this ministry with his wife Linda in Oklahoma City, OK. He is the author of several best-selling books on Bible Prophecy. He was the host of his television program and published a monthly magazine. He loved Bible prophecy and devoted his life to the prophetic interpretation of the Bible. His writings are not only brilliant, but timeless! On March 22, 2011, J.R. went home to be with the Lord, after battling cancer for three years. At Prophecy in the News, he is missed every day, but he has left us a wealth of prophetic teachings that we will continue to publish through our emails. We hope you are blessed by his teachings!

Book Recommendations

I have recently read three books that I would highly recommend:

• Harpazo by Jacob Prasch
• Cosmic Chessmatch by L.A. Marzulli
• The Genesis 6 Conspiracy by Gary Wayne

These three books will get you "up to snuff" on what's coming upon the world from a Biblical perspective. I have reread The Omega Conspiracy. This book is written by I.D.E. Thomas and is a must for anyone interested in ancient mysteries such as megalithic buildings (ie. pyramids) and modern mysteries such as the UFO phenomena. Also, keep reading your Bible. Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Thessalonians, Jude and Revelation tie together nicely, along with revisiting the book of Genesis, which is crucial to understand in order to comprehend Revelation. One-third of the Bible is prophetic including  many of the Psalms, especially Ps 2, Ps 22 and Ps 83.

A word about Prophecy

Posted on December 25, 2014 by graewulf73 | Edit

 

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” 2Pet 1:20

 

The word “prophecy” in the verse above comes from the root prophetes which translates: “one who, moved by the Spirit of God and hence his organ or spokesman, solemnly declares to men what he has received by inspiration, especially concerning future events, and in particular such as relate to the cause and kingdom of God and to human salvation”. Notice the last four words of the verse” “and to human salvation”. That worked for me. I had this old Bible that my dad gave to me. I went to a private Lutheran school for 5 years. We were taught to respect the Holy Bible as God’s Word. Many memory verses to learn each week. I noticed that there was this last chapter of the Bible that was neglected it seemed to me. I would read through the Book of Revelation myself because it seemed so fascinating, scary and wondrous all at the same time. Then in my teenage years Hal Lindsay came out with his best seller The Late Great Planet Earth. With Israel back on the scene and Wars and famines happening, I took notice. I believe the Lord used prophecy in this way to guide me into reading His Word and getting saved.  We found a bible teaching church or should I say the Lord led us to a church that we could grow and develop in. New things like “Rapture”, “Millennium” “Judgment Seat” and “Born again”… all concepts clearly taught in the Bible but seeing them with new eyes for the first time. Now we had a pastor out of Dallas Theological Seminary. This was back in the day before man’s wisdom of psychology and “Meism” took hold there. The Scofield bible was a common sight. Besides learning the basics of what the bible teaches about salvation, judgment and missions, we were being taught a fairly rigid dispensational type of eschatology (end times) that favored a pre-trib view. Dr Walvoord actually visited our church once (former pres of Dallas Theo). About ten years ago the Lord led me to an online Christian learning center called Koinonia Institute. Chuck Missler is the head of this. What KI taught me was this: Read the Bible for yourself, prayerfully with the asking of the Holy Spirit to guide me into learning His Word. I had heard this before from Dave Hunt who said to be a Berean. When Paul went to Berea to preach the gospel, the people there looked into the scriptures themselves to check out if what Paul was telling them was accurate. Now I started applying this concept on my own and found that there were verses in the Bible that were nagging at me because they did not seem to line up with my preconceived learning that I had received way back in the 1980’s. Here is my point: Do not me too rigid in what you have learned previously from your denomination or your pastor or a book you have read. The Lord uses these things to guide you many times into the truth. There really is only one correct interpretation but God’s Word is so fascinating because there are deeper meanings underlying the surface many times. Jacob Prasch of Moriel Ministries has taught me that many of us have learned to read the Bible from a Hellenistic view. Hellenistic meaning from a Greek based concept. Being fairly straightforward and rigid. Read from a Jewish perspective, the Bible has “midrash” which is a really enlightening concept of approach to scripture. Prasch is careful in differentiating the term midrash from what developed later in the Talmud (the Rabbi’s excessive laws and interpretations of the Torah). An example he gives is found in Matthew where a verse out of Hosea that says God’s daughter came out of Egypt in Hosea means the people of Israel escaped Pharaoh, but in Matthew it is talking of Mary and Joseph coming out of their sojourn in Egypt and coming to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. God wants you to dig deep into His Word. He wants you to know what’s happening. Be open to His Holy Spirit teaching you. Don’t be too rigid in your preconceived ideas and learning. They are helpful as guideposts and stepping stones but ultimately we need to get our knowledge from God’s knowledge which is called Wisdom. No one has all the answers. No one knows exactly how all the pieces of bible prophecy fit together. If someone claims to know everything watch out! Many have made such claims in the past and have led many astray. As we progress through these end times the Lord will give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Are we listening? It truly is an amazing time to be a Christian!

Israel

Are the Jews still God's chosen people? Has the Church replaced Israel as His chosen ones? Is there any significance of the nation of Israel being a newly formed country in 1948? Are the Jews already saved or should the gospel be preached to them? Your thoughts.

Revelation

Have you read the last book of the Bible recently? Do you regard Revelation as history, or as symbolical, or as poetry, or as prophecy past or present or both, or as an interesting story about the end of the world? Let me know which view you have.

The Rapture

My posts will be much shorter. I do not know if in spite of the 500+ views of my blog if anyone is really reading them. I know that maybe in the past because of their length or non open ended structure this may have been a hindrance but I would like some communication out there....OK?

I would like to know if my readers(anyone?) believe in a rapture. If so, are you Pre-Trib, Mid-trib, Post-Trib, Pre-wrath, or none of the above and why. Let's have a blog...

Have a blessed day, Ron

A Meeting in the Desert

Acts chapter 8 shows the contrast between a CINO (Christian in name only) and a true believer. Lets concentrate on the latter.  Philip was directed by The Angel of the Lord to go down to the Judean desert. Philip is directed by Holy Spirit GPS to navigate to an individual sitting in his chariot, reading. This individual is the treasurer to the nation of Ethiopia whose queen was named Candace. The history of Christianity in Ethiopia is an interesting study. Some say that Jeremiah had the Ark of the Covenant hidden in this mysterious land at the time of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem so that it could remain safe from confiscation. Anyway, imagine this man, alone in his chariot, stopped to read something that was so fascinating and perplexing. This is a picture or what is known as a "type" of God illuminating truth to someone that is reading the Word of God. He must have been startled when out of the blue, Philip comes up to him and asks him what he is reading. The man says he just returned from the temple in Jerusalem to worship and was headed back down to Ethiopia. Most likely Candace gave the treasurer an allowance to purchase some Scriptures if he found some for purchase. What he was immersed in reading was the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet that had written down what God told him to prophesy to the Hebrews of the northern kingdom way back 600 years before this desert meeting. Isaiah was to warn God's people of a fierce enemy to the northeast known as the Assyrians. He also named a conquering Persian king by the name of Cyrus 100 years before he came into Isaiah's homeland, booting out the Babylonians that had booted out the Assyrians! Imagine Jeremiah showing this Cyrus Isaiah's book and pointing to his name that had been written down by the prophet long ago. We are not told if Cyrus became a believer in the One True God, however he was one of the best kings as far as justice, law and ruling that Persia had ever had. So Philip asked the treasurer what he was reading. He specifically told Philip that he was reading the part of the book that referred to  "A Man of Sorrows" which is what we know as chapter 53 of Isaiah. He was wanting to know if Isaiah was speaking of himself or someone else. If someone is reading the bible and they come upon something they don't understand and they ask the Lord to reveal the meaning of it, the Holy Spirit will answer that prayer. This is a picture of that. The portion of the book he was reading had been written down hundreds of years ago. The scribes had copied down the words for generations to come. A perfectly preserved copy was found in this area of the desert known as Qumran in 1947. The dry climate had preserved this copy that was place in a jar in a cave at the time Jesus walked the earth by a sect of Judaism known as the Essenes. Isaiah 53 speaks of a man that had been tortured, disfigured, and suffers death. Why? To bear the sins of many. A perfectly innocent man. The only acceptable sacrifice that could be made. The Son of God. The Lamb of God. The perfect sacrifice for the sins of fallen man. To all that believe.... The treasurer wanted to know who this man was. Philip told him it was his Savior Jesus. This meeting in the desert happened before Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus, but is every bit as amazing. It shows a sinner saved by grace by reading and given understanding of the Word of God. Soon after as they started riding south in the chariot, they spotted some water. The treasurer asks Philip if he could have a baptism there. Philip said if he truly believed that Jesus was his Savior in his heart he could get baptized.  Note the order here.... he had to believe first, then be baptized. Not the other way around. John 3 has it in the right order: First believe- then be baptized. Baptism is a command that the Lord gave us that believe in Him showing the world that we are Christians. Does baptism save you? No. It is what we do after we are saved to show that we are washed of sin by the blood of Jesus' perfect sacrifice. Nicodemus came to Jesus in secret to ask him questions. Nicodemus knew about baptism. He was a Jewish scholar and knew baptism showed a washing of repentance. Before Jesus died on the cross, baptism pointed to this future washing of sins to come by the ultimate sacrifice. All of the baptisms that Nicodemus could have had did not make a bit of difference if you didn't believe in the Messiah. Nicodemus' Messiah was speaking to him face to face when he told him a man must be born again not of water but of spirit. This happens at the moment of conversion and a man testifies to his belief by the act of baptism. Does it seal your salvation. No. It is a command. The dying criminal next to Jesus on the cross believed but did not get a baptism and yet we know he was saved. Why? Because Jesus told him that he would see him shortly in Paradise. Does infant baptism save a person. No. That infant does not have the understanding to believe. The Ethiopian treasurer went home a new man and spread the Gospel to his countrymen. There is still a strong Christian presence in this country to this day. Praise God.