by
William T James
Sixth
century B.C. prophet, Zechariah, spoke words that pierce today's ears in
thunderous decibels. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto
all
the people round about .... 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 ... gathered together against it (Zech. 12:2-3).
Jerusalem
is a city as ancient as any still in existence, yet it is as contemporary as
today's front page headlines. It is a city destined to become the
center
of the world's most volatile geopolitical conflict ever and, ultimately, the
precise spot on the planet where God's own foot will touch down to
put
an end to man's genocidal madness.
The
beginning of the end of human history is traceable to a general geographical
area of the Earth, portions of which the world watched the United Nations
Desert
Storm coalition forces decimate with unprecedented military might. It has been
termed "Mesopotamia" by the geographers and the "Cradle of
Civilization"
by
historians and anthropologists.
According
to the Bible, it is the region where the Garden of Eden was home for the first
human beings. When Adam and Eve broke fellowship with the Creator
by
yielding to the serpent's temptation, the end-time clock began ticking for the
present Earth.
The
first murder followed, setting in motion the blood-drenched record upon which
we now look back. Such dynamics will produce the indescribable carnage
and
gore that is prophesied to take place during man's last seven years of this
dying, decaying age.
What
Are the Signs?
Apocalypse
and Armageddon loom just ahead. But, can we know if those long talked about,
worried-over events will even come to pass, much less within our
own
lifetime? Have not doomsday prophets for centuries been predicting such things?
Most of them have been predicting those end-time events would occur
during
their lifetimes. What makes predictors and predictions today any different from
then?
Perhaps
to begin answering such questions - good questions at that - questions of
another kind are in order. Why are you reading this treatment of the subject
of
the biblically prophesied Apocalypse and all it will entail? Something has
piqued your ears, your eyes, your attention.
Why
the suddenly increased fascination with things to come - with that once hazy,
most generally presumed-to-be-mythical matter called Armageddon? Something
has
happened. Something drastic, almost irresistible, calls people to begin looking
more seriously at what the immediate future holds for their world.
Jesus
found himself surrounded by a group of people who asked what the signs of His
return to earth and of the end of the world would be. As He always did,
Jesus
spoke to the heart of the subject with precision and truth, outlining the major
signs that would immediately precede the Second Advent.
His
followers asked in Matthew 24:3, "... what shall be the sign of thy
coming, and the end of the world?" Jesus gave them more than they asked
for as He
answered,
Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am
Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and
rumors
of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and
kingdom
against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes,
in divers places. All these things are the beginning of sorrows.
Then
shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be
hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended,
and
shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets
shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound,
the
love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same
shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all
the
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come (Matt.
24:4-14).
In these
few passages, Jesus swept the entire panorama of world history from His time on
earth forward, using specific word pictures of things in the future.
These
signs were given and are recorded in God's Holy Word to be understood by each
and every person, of each and every generation that the prophecies
involve.
God's
Word has many levels of meanings pertaining to the truths given. However, one
must seek to know what is given. We do not simply absorb these truths
as
a sponge absorbs liquid, nor can we through osmosis assimilate God's holy ways
as a plant draws nutrients.
If
we want to know God's instructions, information, and truth, we must
"know" the Bible for ourselves. This "knowing" begins with
the heart of the gospel,
John
3:16. To know God is to know Jesus Christ.
Each
of the signs Jesus expounded upon in the foregoing passages of Scripture will
be dealt with in future essays. For now, we will concern ourselves with
the
one sign Jesus gives that seems most directly to signal the beginning of the
end. We have been living a part of that most dramatic sign since 1948,
when
the nation of Israel was born in a single day - May 14.
Of
that time of Israel's rebirth, Jesus - speaking in parabolic language to His
disciples - said, Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is
yet
tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye,
when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the
doors.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be
fulfilled (Matt. 24:32-34).
Jesus,
in speaking to His disciples in the Olivet Discourse, looked down through the
eras of future man; He spoke to future disciples - to the generation
that
would be alive at the time of His second advent.
The
nation Israel, in the symbolic language sometimes utilized in God's Word, is
likened at times to a fig tree in that God intended the children of Israel
to
be fruitful, a blessing to all the world. Such references to Israel as a fig tree
are found in Judges 9:10-11, Joel 1:7-12, Habakkuk 3:16-17, and in
many
other passages.
Jesus
clearly used the fig tree parable to tell the last generation of believers that
the re-establishment of the nation Israel would be a key sign of His
nearing
second advent as well as a sign of the end of the world system. All other signs
given by Jesus would accompany this major sign as the end of the
age
approached.
Since
Jesus had told of the destruction of Jerusalem - and implied the dispersion of
the Jewish people - just prior to giving the parable of the fig tree,
He
spoke most pointedly of the time when Israel would be re-gathered and begin to
"shoot forth" its leaves. The golden summer of His millennial reign
would
be
near when this came to pass. His coming again would be imminent.
First,
however, the black winter clouds of Apocalypse would have to storm upon a world
gathering to commit collective suicide.
The
prophet Ezekiel spoke of the Diaspora and rebirth of God's chosen nation - the
same nation that made the world tremble nervously in anticipation of
its
reaction to Saddam Hussein's Scud missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War.
And
I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the
countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
For
I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries,
and will bring you into your own land (Ezek. 36:19,24).
God's
promises to this beleaguered, precariously perched nation, the nation most
prominent in the process of pursuing world peace, are numerous throughout
the
Scriptures.
Consider
the profound assurances given through Moses: That then the Lord thy God will
turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return
and
will gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered
thee.
And
the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and
thou shalt possess it ... (Deut. 30:3,5). And,. .. Shall the earth be
made
to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as
Zion travailed, she bought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth,
and
not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord ... (Isa. 66:8-9).
The
exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union, since the supposed benevolent institution
of glasnost and perestroika, has been staggering. The dissolution of
much
of Eastern Europe's communist superstructure has freed many more to migrate to
Israel. They stream from Ethiopia and from around the globe to the
Land
of Promise. We are witnesses to God's promises to Israel in ways unthinkable a
few years ago. God is indeed making manifest, through the Jews, His
great
prophetic truth in this generation!
Put
yourself in the prophet Ezekiel's place for a moment. While you do so, think of
the things you know about the Jews in the day in which we now live.
Think
for a moment on the blowing sands of the Palestinian region and of the empty,
desolate places, void of human life for the most part.
Now,
remember the stark black and white images of starving, dying people you've seen
on documentary footage of the death camps called Auschwitz, Buchenwald,
Dachau,
Mauthasen, Sachsenhausen, Treblinka. Remember the trenches, the bulldozers, the
skeletal forms beneath loose, pasty-white skin. See again the corpses,
intermingling
and meshing together - rolling over each other as the bulldozers did their work
of pushing the bodies into the ditch-like, common graves.
Recall
the scenes of the allied commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower, as he and his staff
walked among the pathetic, stick-like, human figures following the
liberation
of the concentration camps. See again the German people, robust, wellfed, even
though bone-weary of war. Picture them in your mind's eye as
they
held handkerchiefs to their noses, some of them weeping, others retching, and
some trying to leave the lines in which they were forced to walk while
viewing
the rotting bodies of the dead Jews.
Remember
all this as you put yourself, for one moment, in the place of God's prophet,
Ezekiel. 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, 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. And he said
unto me, Son of mart, can these bones live? And I answered, 0 Lord God,
thou
knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, 0
ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these
bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 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.
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. 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. 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, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain, that
they
may live. 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.
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. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God;
Behold, 0 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 (Ezek. 37:1-12).
The
Nazis would have built their Reich atop ground filled with the dry bones of
God's people of destiny. Adolph Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels,
Hermann
Goering, Reinhard Heydrich, Martin Bormann, and the other elitist, Aryan monsters
of the Third Reich, fired the engines of satanic, ideological
hatred
with the skeletal remains of more than six million of the house of Israel. The
final solution, once and for all, would have rid the world of the
despised
Jew. Instead, Hitler's ashes lie scattered in the bloody soil of German shame.
The bones of all the other Nazi diabolists are strewn in ignominy
-
who knows where. Yet, the Jew remains, thrives, and prospers the world in every
facet of life from the arts to industry, medicine, science, and beyond.
God
began His chosen nation's restoration to Palestine nearly a century before the
Nazi beast began its genocidal work. Migration, though a trickle at first,
began
about 1838. The revival of national Jewish life in that land started in earnest
in 1878.
Then
came the event that distinguishes it as perhaps the most important signal that
Apocalypse is near, that Armageddon approaches. Jerusalem was reclaimed
for
the Jew in precisely the manner the prophet Isaiah had foretold more than
twenty-seven hundred years earlier: "As birds flying, so will the Lord of
hosts
defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will
preserve it" (Isa. 31:5).
In
1917, General Edmund Allenby, commander of occupied Palestine for the British
Empire, was ordered to take Jerusalem for the Jews. He found the city in
possession
of the Turks. To take the city by force meant risking initiation of hostilities
that might so inflame the region as to cause a massive conflict
to
result. Bloodshed could have raised the indignation of the whole world.
Allenby,
seeking advice from his government, was told to use his own judgment. He again
contacted his superiors, who told him to pray, offering no further
counsel
in the matter. Allenby then ordered the commander of a fleet of airplanes to
fly over Jerusalem. This action so terrified the Turks that they surrendered
the
city without a shot being fired.
Isaiah's
prophecy was thus fulfilled: "As birds flying," God
"delivered" Jerusalem; the city was "'defended" while
aircraft "passed over."
As
a result of this action, the Balfour Declaration was signed on November 2,
1917, recognizing Palestine as the rightful homeland for the Jew. The re-gathering
began
to take on new dimensions. So, too, did the ugliness of anti-Semitism.
Hatred
for the Jew seemed driven by dynamics that transcended reason, reaching
fever-pitch in Germany on the evenings of November 9 and 10, 1938. During
these
-Crystal Nights," as they have become known, Jewish homes and businesses
were ravaged and destroyed, and many Jewish people were brutally assaulted.
Nazi
inner-circle members haughtily termed it the "Week of Broken Glass."
Hitler's plan, taken from the pages of his prison-dictated writings, "Mein
Kampf,"
had
taken root. The persecution had become full blown.
From
the valley of dry bones - the crematorium/gas chamber hells of Nazi Europe -
arose a God-breathed spirit that screamed then and screams still, "Never
again!"
The crucible of holocaust tempered a people for the rebirth prophesied almost
three millennia earlier.
Modem
Israel was born on May 14,1948. The Jews have miraculously prospered. From a
people near extinction in 1945, they are today the focal nation of the
world.
Surely, Israel is the premiere sign that God's prophetic clock approaches the
midnight hour.
Saddam.
Hussein's demented obsession to become a twentieth century Nebuchadnezzar,
through the elimination of Israel, was short- circuited by unseen forces
greater
than those of the United Nation coalition, valiant though those men and women
were. Israel is in the process of being compressed and funneled
into
an unalterable course. It will be a forced march which, for the last few years
of human history, will cause Jewish people to wish they could trade
their
plight for even that suffered by their ancestors during the Holocaust of the
Nazi death-camp years.
Alas!
for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's
trouble ... (Jer. 30:7).
For
then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be (Matt. 24:21).
What
will set in motion for the world in general, and for Israel in particular, a
time described by Jesus himself as the worst man has ever known? There
is
an event that brings forth Apocalypse from the self-assured smugness of man's
effort to at last establish world peace and safety. "For when they shall
say,
Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a
woman with child; and they shall not escape" (1 Thess. 5:3).
In
Daniel 9:27, the prophet Daniel speaks of the event and of the time that will
begin human history's final seven years, called the time of Jacob's trouble
by
Jeremiah. "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and
in the midst
of
the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the
overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the
consummation,
and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
To
see the awesome import of this prophecy, one must understand that it relates
directly to what Jesus Christ said in expounding on that most terrible time.
The
abomination of desolation is a future dictator whose record of atrocity will
make Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and all other preceding tyrants seem hardly
worthy
of mention.
Jesus'
words on this last and most ferocious dictator are recorded in Matthew
24:15-16. Jesus, confirming the words of Jeremiah and Daniel, is speaking
to
the Jews of Palestine at the end of the age.
When
ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Then
let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.
Notice
that immediately before the time of unprecedented terror, there is first
negotiated a covenant with many. The many in this passage are the Jews -
the
nation Israel - returned after their dispersion. It is the Israel born in a
single day - May 14, 1948.
Do
we see any evidence, in the present hour, of a peace process in which Israel is
involved in a major way?
Saddam
Hussein, before the Persian Gulf crisis was enjoined by the United Nation
coalition forces, reported a dream in which he said the Prophet Mohammed
appeared
to him and told him that in the event of war, he - Saddam - had his Scud
missiles pointed in the wrong direction. "Oh, great prophet," Saddam.
asked
the figure in his dream, "which way should they be pointed?"
The
prophet answered him, "You know which direction to point them."
Israel was Saddam. Hussein's real target, and is the target of every
anti-Israeli nation
and
organization in the world. Jerusalem and that tiny nation are the thorns in the
side of the chaotic, incendiary, militant, Arab conglomerate. Even
so,
the Palestinian homeland issue is merely a rifle scope through which to focus
the hostility.
What
is the true source of the world's rage against Israel? And there appeared a Wee
wonder in heaven, a woman ... And she being with child cried, travailing
in
birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven;
and behold a great red dragon ... and the dragon stood before the woman
which
was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born And
she brought forth a male child, who was to rule all nations ... and
her
child was caught up unto God, and to his throne (Rev. 12:1-5).
Here
is found the nucleus of the geopolitical storm presently gathering in the
Middle East. More than a mortal storm, it is a cosmic, universal maelstrom
of
eternal consequence.
Lucifer,
that fallen angel; Satan, that serpent called the devil - stirs the black,
brewing tempest that will soon unleash his fury into man's final war.
His
hatred for the people through whom God chose to give fallen man His supreme
love gift, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in order that people can
be
reconciled to the Creator, grows more intense and more manifest by the hour.
The
Jew, the nation Israel, is the centerpiece of the Mid-East turmoil. Why? Because
the Jew, Israel, is at the center of that struggle over which man and
his
intellect have philosophized since antiquity but have never comprehended. The
struggle is between good and evil. Many governments have tried to deal
with
the trouble in this region. Some seemed for a time to succeed in their efforts.
But, the ancient conflict goes on, and more and more often, inflames
to
the point of eruption.
The
wars are legendary by their very nature. Modem Israel, though surrounded on
three fronts by forces thirty times greater and backed against the
Mediterranean
Sea,
has not only survived major assaults in 1956,1967, and 1973 - in fact, it was
born in the midst of battle in 1948 - but, it has miraculously and completely
routed
the enemies each time while gaining additional territory. Now, Israel faces a
subtle aggression, but one much more virulent and dangerous. Diplomatic
cries
for peace and safety through a negotiated solution to the problem of a homeland
for the Palestinian refugees are becoming demands. The "Palestinian
problem,"
the diplomats say almost without exception, "is the key to war and
peace."
There
is coming out of the soon-to-be united Europe a leader who will go "forth
conquering, and to conquer" (Rev. 6:2). "There was given unto him a
mouth
speaking
great things..." (Rev. 13:5).
This
mightiest leader ever will come riding the white horse of peacemaker and will
confirm the covenant with many for one week. Translation: This leader
from
a Europe united in a configuration equivalent to the Europe of the Roman Empire
days - a revived Roman Empire, a neo-Roman order of sorts - will make
a
covenant treaty to which Israel will be a major signatory.
The
pact will be for seven years, one year equaling one day of the seven day week
indicated in the Scriptures. The "conquering" by the leader at this
point
in
time, no doubt is in the realm of diplomacy. Undoubtedly, he will offer
brilliant initiatives, magnified in their allurement by a charismatic, personal
charm
that convinces Jew and Arab alike to trust him as a friend of all. As the
guarantor of the peace not just for that region, but for a global peace
upon
which can be built a New World order and a new age of prosperity, he will succeed
where others have failed. His promises will be sweet to the ears
of
a world ravenous for such lies. And lies they will be.
Globe-trotting
exploits by would-be peacemakers have met with fates ranging from abject
failure to moderate, though temporary, success. One recalls seeing
documentary
film of the well-intentioned, but fuzzy-thinking, Neville Chamberlain holding
up the piece of paper Hitler duped him into believing was the
megalomaniac's
true desire for "peace for our time." Henry Kissinger impressed us
mightily with his seeming inexhaustible energy while pursuing an honorable
peace
in Vietnam. Even his brilliant efforts ultimately faded and failed. Secretary
of State James A. Baker, III, of the Bush administration, eclipsed
even
Kissinger's air mileage as he jetted in and out of the capitals of the world in
search of a formula that will defuse the time bomb that is the Middle
East.
He, too, has failed to secure the lasting peace for which the world hungers,
although there may be temporary, superficial "progress" made.
There
is movement in the Arab world to bring great pressure to bear on their avowed
enemy, but this time they plan to use diplomatic maneuvering rather
than
their often failed military force and/or terrorism. These types of tactics are
most likely what the world can expect from now until the nation Israel
is
lulled into a false sense of security. The Scriptures plainly teach that
diplomatic deception will make Israel vulnerable to attack. This prophesied
end
time, caution-softening process can be sensed in a New York Times news service
release dated July 22, 1991, by Thomas L. Friedman.
Jordan
on Sunday joined Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in agreeing to attend a
regional peace conference proposed by the United States. Israeli
Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir, however, told visiting Secretary of State James Baker
that he wanted more time to consider the matter. "We are ready to
attend
a peace conference," King Hussein said, "and we are very happy indeed
it is going to be a comprehensive one." ... Jordan also joined Saudi
Arabia
and
Egypt in offering to suspend the Arab economic boycott of Israel if it will
suspend the building of settlements in the occupied lands.
In
another press service release, it was reported that President Bush said he did
not want to use a "volatile" word like "pressuring" when
talking about
his
stance with the Israelis.
He
preferred to call it "reasoning and taking this, what I keep calling a new
credibility for the United States in the Middle East, and using that to
encourage
what
is a very reasonable and important step to peace."
Groundwork
is being laid. America's well-meaning diplomacy might be the effort that makes
clear the pathway for the final Fuehrer to perform his diabolical
work
when his time comes to step upon the world stage. This man, termed Antichrist
in 1 John 2:18, is dealt with at length in later chapters of this book.
But
Christians - all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as the one and only way
of redemption, i.e., the means of reconciliation with God the Father -
are
looking not for the Antichrist. Rather, they are looking for Jesus Christ who
will "descend from heaven .... Then we which are alive and remain [until
His
secret coming in the clouds above the earth] shall be caught up together with
them [those who have died during the age since Christ's redemptive work
on
the cross] in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be
with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
Israel
is beset on all sides with demands that they submit to a peace process that
will prevent their own expansion while giving the Palestinians a homeland
and the world relief from the constant tensions in the region: this is the clear signal that the end has already begun!