By
Tim LaHaye
The
emergence of China onto the world scene as a powerful geopolitical force to be
reckoned with during this generation has the attention of all the world
leaders.
It is not only the largest country of the world, with a population of 1.2
billion (almost five times that of the United States), but that vast
empire
is led by the most ruthless communist leaders. And they are looking hungrily at
their Asian neighbors-Taiwan, India and the Philippines. They know
the
rest of the world is too cowardly to stand up to them with more than word
threats. If they are not stopped, they will conquer the world, for communists
are
trained to envision imposing their brand of socialism on the entire globe.
Thanks
to American capitalists who have invested heavily in developing this backward
nation merely to gain incredible profits, China, which otherwise would
never
have been able to compete economically on the world scene, is experiencing its
first real growth in hundreds of years. If allowed to go unchecked,
those
investors, or their grandchildren, will live to regret such profit motive
investments without demanding internal social reforms that would have granted
basic
freedoms to the Chinese people. It will be interesting in the years ahead to
see Russia and China contend for supremacy in the area. Without realizing
it,
they both could be fulfilling Bible prophecy.
The
rise of China to such a dominant world political force during the past decade
has enormous significance from a prophetic point of view. Many students
of
prophecy believe it signifies a trend that world geopolitical conditions are
shaping up for the world's last great conflict described more than 1,900
years
ago by the apostle John when he wrote: "And the sixth angel poured out his
bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up,
that
the way might be prepared for the kings from the east" (Revelation 16:12).
These
"kings from the east" have befuddled Bible prophecy scholars for many
years, for few mentioned anything about them until the communist takeover of
China
during World War 11. Since then it has become apparent that this nation has a
prophetic role, however minor it may be, in end-time events. Although
China
has been content to stay within its vast borders for thousands of years and
live pretty much to itself, its communist dictators have changed all
that.
They seem to have the same obsession that characterized communists before
them-world conquest.
One
hundred-eighty years ago Napoleon Bonaparte said, "When China awakens, the
world will tremble." You don't have to be a prophet to recognize that the
time
of trembling has already come to Asia and, within one decade, will probably
come to the whole world.
No
longer is China, with the world's largest population, the paper tiger it has
been for almost 5,000 years. In our lifetime, it has startled the world
and
frightened many in the military complex with her enormous economic and military
potential. Many observers recognize that within 10 or, at best, 20
years,
China could very well threaten the entire world even more than the Soviet Union
did just a decade ago. China already has nuclear weapons or soon
will-and
has a delivery system feared by every country in the Orient. This country is
trafficking in arms beyond belief by buying them from Russia and
any
of the former impoverished satellite countries that will sell them. Then it
turns around and sells that which it doesn't want to keep to any of the
oil-rich
allies that can afford them (such as Iran, Iraq or even India).
China
recently regained Hong Kong. Now its aggressive demand for Taiwan and the
Sprately Islands indicates it has a strategy to control all of Asia. Whoever
controls
the Spratelys not only controls the oil check points to the oil dependent
countries of the East, including Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines,
but
also Australia, Indonesia and Singapore-where 50 percent of the world's
population lives. Basing claims to these almost uninhabitable islands to
centuries
old
documents, China is probably more interested in the suspected rich oil fields
under them than their location because no country can prosper today or
in
the foreseeable future without oil.
But
China is not just interested in the Orient. In 1997, the Chinese almost
negotiated an incredible coup in the Americas. First, it was disclosed that
they
had leased an important pier in Long Beach, California, that was being vacated
by the U.S. Navy. The pier was to be used for the government- owned
Chinese
Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) to help speed imports into the United States.
Our balance of payments with China already shows a deficit of $50
billion
and is expected to go as high as $70 or $100 billion, a tribute to American
capitalists whose concern for profits exceeds their concern for the
safety
of our country.
Another
amazing effort was China's attempt to gain a foothold in the Panama Canal area
when the United States withdraws from that region before the turn
of
the century. With long-term leases at each end of the canal, China could
virtually control the shipping through the canal. Some military experts believe
this
could force the United States to have two separate navies because warships
could no longer be sent to support our naval forces from one ocean to the
other
without China's permission. At this writing, neither of these negotiations have
been finalized, but it does show the long-range goals of the Chinese
government.
Keep
in mind that China is not controlled by democracy-loving liberals like most
countries in the world. Chinese leaders are among the most dedicated communists
in
the world. They are not "agrarian reformers" or
"progressives," as our media tried to represent them a few years ago.
Rather, they are a ruthless group
of
elite leaders who have stolen the opportunity for freedom from the 1.2 billion
freedom-loving Chinese people, and they have never wavered in their plan
to
use China as a military platform from which to conquer the world. The events of
the next two decades, if indeed we have that long, will prove that point.
It
is obvious that the obsession of America's leadership to appease these ruthless
communists will strengthen their position and weaken ours. Many American
leaders
have never been able to deal successfully with communists in general, much less
with Oriental communists. Our leaders have assumed when strong
communist
leaders become dictators or "presidents" of their countries that they
become nice people whose word can be trusted or, for that matter, whose
signatures
on treaties can be trusted. History shows that is a naive concept. In recent
years only former President Ronald Reagan, who regarded communism
for
what it really is ("an evil empire"), understood them. He dealt with
diplomacy backed by force, which is why the Soviet Union finally collapsed.
Appeasement
seems to be the watchword of the present leadership in our country. For this
reason the World Bank, which is controlled and financed by American
taxpayers,
has financed the Chinese economy until all experts expect it to challenge our
own economy for world markets in 10 to 20 years. When I was in
Beijing
in 1995, 1 read the English version of the Asian Press and saw the Chinese
government bragging about the fact that they had obtained the highest
loans
from the World Bank of any country on earth. Twenty-two billion dollars! For
several years they allowed American companies to buy 25 percent of
corresponding
companies
in China to gain capital. If you were to drive through Beijing you would no doubt
be dumbfounded by the names of countless American companies
that
have affiliates in China. This, of course, has contributed to our enormous
trade deficit that has provided China untold billions to support its
socialistic
economy.
Further
evidence that China has indeed awakened from her centuries-old economic slumber
includes a recent TV special that reported that seven of the ten
tallest
buildings in the world are in China. (Not exactly ideal places to be during the
enormous earthquakes prophesied for the coming tribulation period.)
The
Bible says very little about China. In fact, the reference to China,
"kings of the east," includes more than just China. That phrase
really means "kings
of
the rising sun," which would include Japan and possibly other Asian
countries. As Dr. John Walvoord, a scholar and writer considered to be the dean
of
prophecy scholars living today, writes of this expression:
There
has been some tendency to take the expression "the kings of the east"
literally, "the kings of the sunrise"-as referring specifically to
Japan where
the
rising sun is a symbol of its political power. However, it is more natural to
consider the term, "rising sun" as a synonym for east.'
Some
Bible teachers suggest that "the Sinites" referred to in Genesis
10:17, and again in the prophecy of Isaiah 49:12, are where the "land of
Sinim" is
located.
After God scattered the Sinites from the Tower of Babel, they evidently settled
in the East in what we know today as China. Then they became isolated
from
the rest of the world.
After
the great flood, those earliest settlers carried with them the stories of
creation and the one true God. Early missionaries to China pointed out the
truth
of God in the Chinese pictographic language. My brother-in-law, a missionary to
Taiwan for more than 20 years, told me the Chinese name for God is
"ShangTi,"
which is made up of two pictographic symbols: "above" (or heavenly)
and "emperor." Together, they mean "Heavenly Emperor." In a
country that
worships
many gods, it is interesting that the earliest of Chinese characters (going
back as far as 4,500 years) indicate that they recognized one God
above
all the emperors and other gods. Chuck Missler gives other illustrations of
Chinese pictographs:
For
example, the word "boat" is made up of three Chinese characters:
vessel, eight and mouth, which could be a carry over from the eight mouths on
the ark.
The
word "beginning" (of sin) combines the pictographs for "woman,
secretly and mouth." The Chinese word for "devil" combines four
words: motion, garden,
man,
and privately. Even more obvious is the word for "desire or covet."
It is made up of two trees and the symbol for woman. Doubtless there are many
other
Chinese characters that could be traced to Genesis before the Tower of Babel.'
Another
interesting factor students of China find is that the most ancient Chinese
calendars are seven-day calendars. Given their pagan background, we can
only
speculate that this, too, is a carryover from the book of Genesis. Geographically,
the Euphrates River, one of the first rivers mentioned in the Bible,
has
served for centuries as the natural dividing line between East and West. It is
evident to Bible scholars that Judaism and Christianity had an enormous
impact
on the world west of the Euphrates River, but very little influence on the
East. Instead, the master deceiver has condemned the billions of souls
of
the peoples of the East with a succession of false religions such as Buddhism,
Hinduism, Taoism and combinations of all of them. The dragon, the official,
symbol
of China, overpowered the primitive biblical teachings possessed by the first
settlers with the polytheistic pantheism they have today. The idea
that
"god is all and all is god" is really a rejection of the God of the
Bible.
The
early settlers of Asia carried with them the account of the one true God and
His early acts of creation, the Garden of Eden, the fall and the worldwide
flood
in the days of Noah. Unfortunately, the devil, the deceiver of the minds and
souls of mankind, made the Orient his chief capital for the religions
of
Babylon. Religion in Rome was Babylonian mysticism mixed with Christianity.
China has the pure religion of Babylon-polytheism-- the worship of many
gods.
Joseph
Lam, born to missionary parents who spent most of their lives in China,
believes the national symbol, the dragon, is the true symbol of the god of
China.
In the book of Revelation, our Lord called Satan a "liar and
deceiver." The apostle John calls him a dragon and predicts that when he is
cast out
of
heaven, he will deceive billions of people into taking the mark of the beast
and worshiping his image (Revelation 13). During the tribulation, that
old
serpent the devil will lead billions to reject Christ and worship himself.
It
is not difficult to see how, at the end of the tribulation period, the master
deceiver of the souls of man will easily deceive "the kings of the
east"
and
their followers into making the long trek west to the Megiddo Valley to do
battle with the King of kings. Already steeped in humanistic religions for
centuries,
and currently controlled by humanistic communists with an obsession for world
conquest, their vision of spreading their might and culture over
the
entire world will make them easy targets for one last gigantic
deception-Armageddon.
When
God performed a biological miracle on the loins of Abraham and Sarah over 3,500
years ago, He created a nation He intended to be his "torchbearers"
to
bring the light of His grace and truth to the whole world. His blessing on the
nation during the early reign of Solomon that caused the queen of Sheba
to
say "the half was not told me" (1 Kings 10:7) indicates that God
wanted to use Israel as a powerful testimony to the peoples and nations of the
world
that
He blesses those who obey Him. Unfortunately, Solomon later disobeyed God and
permitted his wives to bring in their pagan worship. After his death,
many
Israelites followed them into paganism, so many that God finally permitted a
pagan nation to take them into captivity, and their lamp was almost
extinguished.
Instead
of being a nation blessed of God, the centuries showed they had incurred the
curse of God for their disobedience. The rejection of their own Messiah
was,
of course, the last straw, and they were driven from the land for 1,800 years.
In
all probability, one of the areas of the world God intended the Israelites to
evangelize was east of the Euphrates. Joseph Lam reminds us:
King
Solomon traded with China. The ancient Silk Road superhighway went from the New
Testament port of Antioch to Changan (Sian). Silk routes also went
by
sea from Jerusalem to Ningbo in the Tang and Song dynasties. The caravan land
routes went through Baghdad and connected with nearly all the ancient
capitals
from Babylon to Khanbalik (Beijing).'
Had
Israel only been faithful to God instead of worshiping idols, there would have
been plenty of ways to get the message behind those vast mountain passes.
The
story of missionary efforts in China during the eighteenth century is a heroic
tale, but not nearly as successful as in other countries where the people
were
not so exposed to demons and spirits of devils. After more than 100 years of
courageous missionary efforts, there are estimated to be 60 million Christians
in
China. We all rejoice at this number of born-again souls, but that is only
one-half of 1 percent of the population. Few countries boast of more continuous
persecution
of Christians than China-even today. It has long seemed that the U.S. State
Department and the current administration are blind to the human
rights
violations of Christians throughout the world, especially in China. Much more
than politics is involved. A satanic struggle rages in the Orient
today
between the spiritual "powers of the air"-Satan against the Spirit of
God.
When
I was in Beijing, I secretly interviewed several Christians who know what it is
like to be persecuted and to live under the constant threat of persecution.
Several
of those I talked with indicated they first heard the gospel over shortwave
radio, through which the Spirit of God witnessed to their empty hearts.
Several
were former Buddhists, another a committed communist. All admitted emptiness in
their hearts prior to turning on the shortwave radio to gospel
broadcasts
out of Hong Kong. There is something satanic to the opposition that Christians
are subjected to behind the Bamboo Curtain. While in their country,
I
learned they had two kinds of churches: 1) the approved, or "mainline,"
churches that had to agree not to teach the forbidden doctrines of the
inerrancy
of
Scripture and the second coming of Jesus Christ (two doctrines Satan has always
opposed!); and 2) the underground, or house churches, that teach the
whole
Bible until the worshipers are discovered and imprisoned. It is in these house
churches where thousands are coming to Christ each week. Joseph Lam
puts
it in perspective:
In
the West, we think of bomb-making instructions on the Internet as dangerous.
Not to the dragon. To him, the "most dangerous" message on the
Internet
is
the "Second Advent of Christ." The soon return of Christ is the
message the thought-police most want to censor out. In fact, in many areas the
police
are
registering modems and even fax machines in order to keep the end-times message
of Christ's return from being circulated. You see, Chinese Christians
believe
passionately that Christ is coming again, not just someday-but "in this
generation." The dragon knows he must stop this Apostolic message of hope.
If
somehow he can stop these New Testament-style Bible studies, he knows he will
cripple Church growth in China.
The
kingdom of God and the Second Coming of Christ are the rarest sermon topics
preached in China's government-controlled pulpits.... The dragon persecutes
the
house churches because he is terrified of the end-times gospel they preach.
This message liberates the people from bondage to their control and so
it
has to be denounced as "antirevolutionary" superstition.
Christians
are consistently forbidden the right to do any public evangelism of any kind.
Private worship is reluctantly permitted but gospel preaching is
banned.
Directives
to the state-controlled churches warn pastors not to preach the message of
Revelation.
Pastors
in congregations of the "Three Self Patriotic movement" skip
liturgical readings about the second coming of Christ such as Hebrews 9:28 and
Revelation
19;
22:20,21.
Sunday
School teachers are not allowed to discuss the "day of the Lord"
predicted in both the Old and New Testaments.
The
Olivet Discourse, recorded in three of the four gospels, is forbidden (the most
important outline of prophecy in Scripture).
Many
Chinese hymns of advent, missions, judgment and the millennial reign of Christ
are no longer sung in registered Chinese churches. Such music isn't
politically
correct.
Lam
concludes, "Nothing so upsets the dragon as the mention of Christ's
return, and nothing so comforts the Chinese church and
I
could not help thinking that in America, where pastors have the freedom to
preach anything they please, thousands of churches never hear that second
coming
message.
Not because they are forbidden by government, but because they have been
tricked by seminary professors into thinking it is confusing or not relevant
for
today. Satan uses different tactics in different cultures- anything that will
produce silence on the blessed hope of Christ's soon return. Why? Because
there
is no more spiritually motivating teaching in the entire Bible!
As
early as May 21,1965, the author of a Time magazine article on China threw a
hand grenade into the laps of prophecy preachers by stating that the Chinese
had
the potential of yielding an army of "200 million troops.
That
specific number identically coincided to the one found in Revelation 9:16,
which predicts that 200 million horsemen would be unleashed and go out to
slay
"one-third of men" at the blowing of the sixth trumpet judgment
during the tribulation period. This reference triggered an outbreak of
speculation
that
found some suggesting that the 200 million would come with the kings of the
east to do battle with Christ at the consummation of the end of this age
known
as the battle of Armageddon.
There
is no question that the armies of the Orient that come to that battle at the
very end of the tribulation will be enormous, due to the incredible population
of
those countries. However, this definitely does not describe the Revelation 9:16
army. Consider the following reasons:
1.
That army goes out during the sixth seal, which occurs near the middle of the
tribulation; the Revelation 16:12 army goes out at the end of the tribulation.
2.
The 200 million in Revelation 9:16 are not humans; they are demons, doing
things that man cannot do. They have a supernatural effect on the earth.
3.
That army kills one-third of the world population, or approximately one-
and-a-half-billion people, from the Euphrates to the Holy Land. There aren't
that
many people in the entire region. In addition, Revelation 9 has a worldwide
view. They must have a worldwide mission to find that many people to kill.
4.
The Time magazine article included all the men and women under arms in China,
including their local militias or defense forces. There is no way in this
world
the communist government could risk committing all its military and armament to
the Middle East, for they know their freedom-hungry citizens would
revolt
before they got back. Besides, the logistics of moving an army of 200-million
people from the Orient across the Euphrates and the Arabian Desert
to
the little land of Israel seems impossible, even with today's modern means of
transportation. That would consist of four times as many troops as were
utilized
in all of World War 11-and that stretched from the South Pacific through Europe
and into the Near East and lasted more than five years. This battle
is
accomplished in a matter of days. To involve 200 million people in such a short
period of time would be impossible.
For
these and other reasons, it is not realistic or scripturally necessary to
assume that the armies of Revelation 16:12 are synonymous with those of
Revelation
9:16.
It is more likely that when the Euphrates River (the natural boundary between
East and West for 1,600 miles) is "dried up," the "kings of the
east"
will
march a sizable army across to battle with the King of kings. That army will
probably be more like three to five million people strong. Remember,
they
will be joined in the valley of Megiddo by huge armies from all over the world,
and while that valley is vast (as Napoleon has said, "the most ideal
natural
battlefield in the world"), even it has a limit to how many people it can
hold.
The
significance of the rise of China to the point that it is becoming a principal
player among the nations of the world at this time in history has not
been
lost on perceptive prophecy expert Dr. John Walvoord. Seeing the prophetic
significance of China's rise to prominence back in 1967, he wrote:
The
fact that the rise of Asia has occurred in our twentieth century with so many
rapid and unexpected developments is another evidence that the world is
moving
toward its final climax and the end of the times of the Gentiles. In Asia, as
in other parts of the world, the stage is being set for the final
drama
in which the kings of the east will have their important part.
If
Dr. Walvoord were writing on that subject today, he might be inclined to say
the curtain is about to rise. I am convinced that the rise of China to world
prominence
economically and militarily in our day is, prophetically speaking, a most
significant event. We are the first generation that has witnessed
the
sleeping giant of China reach the potential of fulfilling this prophecy. No one
doubts that unless something drastic and unforeseen occurs soon, China
will
gain control of most of the countries of the East, with whom it shares many
religious and cultural similarities. That China could be led in these
very
days by her master, the dragon, "that old serpent, the devil," the
deceiver of man, to so rebel against God that it would join the armies of the
world
in
opposition to the coming of Jesus Christ is realistic. What is needed to bring
China to that capability? Very little! Just the deceiving spirit forewarned
by
John the Revelator. China is almost there today and could gain control of the
entire Orient in 10 or, at most, 20 years.
And
remember, this does not take place until seven years after the rise of the
Antichrist, which follows the rapture of the church. That is more than enough
time
to prepare to fulfill Revelation 16:12! And it is one more reason we have to
believe Christ may return for His church in our generation.