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!

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

About(part 5)

     I know this is getting ridiculously long, but this is the best part if you read this far. The Lord used Cumbey's book to knock me over the head. The next thing was checking out the book's references which included Marilyn Ferguson's book The Aquarian Conspiracy.  Cumbey's book also included many biblical refernces  to the New World Order(NWO) and the end times scenario. But there was this constant urge for me to read the bible. I started by obtaining a copy of Gordon Fee's How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth. The book suggested I read the bible in a way that I would be reading the Old Testament and the New Testament at the same time. In other words, read a section of Genesis and Matthew in one reading. I cannot stress enough how  powerful this urge was to start to read the bible. I found an easy to read version called The Living Bible  and went to work highlighting verses that I started to see in the OT and NT. I discovered many verses quoted by Jesus in the NT from the OT. I also noted that the prophets were foretelling the same things even though they wrote at different times. In April 1985 I had read through the Gospels and was reading the book of Isaiah. I was at chapter 53 in particular. Isaiah is describing "a man of sorrows" that suffers horribly so that man can be redeemed, This man shed His blood and suffered the worst beatings and disfigurement because of His unconditional love for the lost. Suddenly, as if blinders were lifted off my eyes, I understood that this prophet Isaiah was describing a person that would suffer and die for His people more than 500 years in the future! It all suddenly made sense to me. That the Gospel, the Good News of what Jesus did was for ME. All the prophecies written about Jesus and His first coming back 2000 years ago had ALL been predicted and had all come to pass! Where He was to be born, where He was to live, how he was to be betrayed, how He was to die and even how he was to be buried. When this TRUTH finally was made clear to me, I had many emotions come over me. I wept because I had missed this TRUTH for 30 years of my life. I knew that Jesus had saved me at that moment that He revealed Himself to me through reading the Word of God. I then also knew that God's Word is absolutely TRUE in every sense. I was amazed that I had missed the most important thing in this world for anyone to accept: that Jesus died not only for the sins of the world but for MY sins. The absolutely Holy, sinless God Himself came into this world as a MAN and provided the ONLY WAY OUT of darkness and death. I was amazed that all I did was finally understand this wonderful thing that God had done for ME. I was so grateful that this saving grace was  
was absolutely a free gift. I could not earn it or work for it or ever be good enough to deserve it. In conclusion, I realized that I had been born again. A new creature had been created. (to be continued...)

About (part 4)

     After graduating college in 1980 and starting my career as a pharmacist, things were good. We bought a new car, went on a cruise and bought a house. In 1981 our daughter was born. Our son was born in 1983. By 1985 we were living in a nice house across from a park. We had two children and a dog. Life was good.......and yet...  There was something I felt was missing. I had the feeling that there was still something more in life that I yearned for but I did not know what it was. Even though I had no complaints on the surface, there was a hole in my soul that I could not define. I wonder how many people out there go through this feeling of "something lacking". Many people are drawn close to God in times of personal hardship, turmoil, crisis and sickness. I was drawn to the Lord in a time of "peace and prosperity" relatively speaking. God does indeed work in mysterious ways.
       One night at work the assistant manager came back to my area and asked me why I was listening to that awful rock music. Well that was just regular listening pleasure to me at the time. I knew she was a born again Christian and she thought rock music was satanic. I really do not recall why I stopped listening to the music channel after that but I did. I started listening to "Talk Radio" which was very popular at the time. One evening they had on as a guest Constance Cumbey, a Detroit lawyer and recent author of a book called:
 http://archive.org/details/HiddenDangersOfTheRainbow. You could say that the Lord started changing my life after listening to the author then in reading her book. I had always been interested in Bible prophecy and I had read The Late Great Planet Earth  by Hal Lindsey back in high school and knew that the rebirth of Israel and the wars they had fought in the last several decades had prophetic meaning, but this book made me really want to read the bible all the way through. Her book was about the New Age movement, which would culminate in a New World Order and the reign of the Antichrist. This book really opened up my eyes as to how this new age network worked. She backed everything up with scripture. I got a hold of a very simple to read paraphrase of the bible and began to highlight all the verses that she used in her book. I read her book through at least three times and I began to see evidence of this "New Age" everywhere I looked. I'm afraid I was like the Mel Gibson character in "Conspiracy Theory"(the movie) at this point. (To be continued...)

Thanksgiving

I am truly thankful for the cease-fire between Israel and the Gaza Strip. An invasion by Israeli forces would have been a lit match that would have lighted a fuse resulting in a powder keg blowing up and starting a horrendous chain reaction of events in the Middle East and beyond. Everyone could watch their football games and enjoy their family dinners today knowing that an unstoppable red horse of war was not going to be unleashed on the world. Again, God is trying to get our attention to the lateness of the hour. There will be no peace in the world until the Prince Of Peace, Yeshua, comes and brings about that true peace for His Millennial rule on earth. Wikipedia's definition of a cease-fire:

A ceasefire (or truce) is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. 

Note the words temporary and suspend. Hamas is most likely using this "peace time" to restock their rockets.

"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 12:3

Sand

Sand. Sand on the beach. Sands of the sea. Sand is mentioned in the bible often to illustrate the concept of things too numerous to count. As the "Frankenstorm" Sandy is causing destructive flooding, winds, property damage and even deaths across our nation's heavily populated northeast quadrant, it brought to mind the verses in Matthew 7:24-29. God's judgment? How about God's warning? I believe this may be a warning or wake up call to be alert for future judgment. Read those verses. Are we building on sand or rock? One is temporary and one is eternal. Are we trusting our investments here on earth or are we trusting what God has invested for our benefit? God the Father has invested His only begotten Son Jesus Christ in our behalf. Be alert. Keep looking up. Ever look around you in a public place and observe the people around you. Many, you will notice are looking down. Looking down at their iPads and iPhones and laptops. Perhaps some of these "natural" disasters are God wanting us to look up to Him. Think about it...

Signs

It seems that last week as Obama spoke his mind to the world and the Israeli government in particular, that the sun has started it's CMEs(Coronol Mass Ejections) and the wave of severe tornados across the nation (without the expected ratio of loss of life) has gone hand in hand. A book by William Koenig, a Washington correspondent goes into detail about this amazing effect in a book called Eye To Eye. What's causing the events? The "cursing" of the apple of God's eye: Israel. Giving up land for peace or dividing Israel. Recently it has been an abandoning of the USA's support for Israel by our heads of government and even "Christian" denominations. Iran is capable of a nuclear arsenal that threatens Israel and world peace.  Keep an eye on this as I have and you will appreciate the late state of the game we are involved in. Exciting times to be a Christian for sure. It's all spelled out in God's Word: The Bible. Read On...

Psalm 83

Most of us know of the great Gog-Magog war predicted in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Some believe that this war will either occur during the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel (7 year tribulation) or just preceeding it. The confederacy includes Turkey, Russia, Iran and Libya. Bill Salus in his book Isralestine points out that there is another war that occurs prior to that one. Look at the areas mentioned in Psalm 83. The names are the ones used at the time, but include Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia along with the factions such as Hamas and Hezbollah that are actually inside the so-called "occupied territory". These peoples come together and attack Israel with the intent of driving it into the Sea. Who wins this one? Who miraculously came out on top in 1948, 1967, and 1973? Israel! You will notice that the Ezekial 38-39 countries attack Israel when they are at peace, unwalled and in a properous state. Sheba and Dedan(Saudi/Yemen etc) ask if they are there to plunder. In light of the so-called "democratic uprisings" as of late, we may be seeing the scenario of Psalm 83 unfold before our eyes. Libya especially has captured everyone's attention. Libya is not in the Psalm 83 confederacy but is in the Ezekial 38,39 scenario. We may expect Libya to come out of the uprisings differently than the other countries in Psalm 83. Note the flags of these countries. Most have the crescent moon and star symbol. Most contain the same colors: red,green,black and white. These are the symbols and colors of a religion. When the dust has settled, look for a common goal among these countries. Look for a common enemy. The epicenter is Israel. Jerusalem is the apple of God's eye. Selah.

Hello and Welcome

I do not often have the opportunity to let my family and friends know what is really going on inside my head. With this blog I hope to express what is the most important issues that I am concerned with. There is so much happening in today's world and it is unfolding at an incredibly fast and exponential pace. I will use this blog to inform my friends and family of what I consider to be important events taking place that are not only affecting our lives now, but also and most importantly how these unfolding events are what is written in the Bible and are there for our benefit.
Of utmost concern to me is Biblical illiteracy among many that consider themselves Christians. As many of you know, I have been a student at Koinonia Institute, which is an on-line, non-denominational ministry headed up by Chuck Misssler. I have been taking courses offered at KI for a few years now. I fervently believe that many Christians are unaware of the impact of today's events and are being caught up in many movements that are going in the wrong direction, or even do not see these current events relating to Biblical prophecy due to the fact of Biblical illiteracy. I believe we are entering a time that the Bible has more to say about then when Jesus walked on the earth at His first coming. I am paraphrasing Chuck Missler here. More than one-third of the Bible is prophecy. A portion of those prophecies concerning Yeshua's first coming have already been fulfilled exactly as they were written in scripture. Many of these yet to occur prophecies may very well be fulfiilled in our lifetime. So let's look at what is going on in our world in this prophetic light that the Lord has given us and start to get excited!  We owe it to the people we are in touch with every day that are wondering what is going on in the world to have some answers.  I'm excited about this blog.