A CLOSER LOOK AT ISRAEL...Part II

Despite the constant affirmations about the nations' desire for peace, weapons labs and armories are producing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, together with astronomical numbers of conventional weapons, in virtually every nation on earth. Research indicates that almost 40 percent of all scientific research funding worldwide, is focused on arms research; the International Arms Trade exceeds $1 trillion annually. The armament factories of Russia, China, and the Western Nations, are producing sophisticated weaponry at a truly awesome rate. A military study, The War Atlas, concluded that the World has not known a single day since World War II, without some Nation waging a war or conflict somewhere on Earth. Despite thousands of peace treaties, the last one hundred years has truly become "the century of war." Far more sobering than the increasing frequency of war, is the fact that modern scientific discoveries and massive military budgets, have combined to produce devastating new weapons of mass destruction that have the potential, for the first time in history, to destroy Humanity.


Despite years of peace negotiations between the PLO, the Arab states, and Israel, the continuing tensions in the Middle East are developing into a time bomb that could soon explode into a devastating war. This war may involve the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Although these nations have been discussing peace for decades, the twenty-one Arab nations surrounding Israel, have accumulated more than three times the artillery and tanks possessed by the combined European armies of NATO. Despite America's support of Israel, the United States has sold staggering amounts of sophisticated Abram's m-1 tanks, advanced anti-tank missiles, communications gear, and the most effective f-16 fighter planes in the American arsenal, to the Arab states, dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. The Arab nations have no significant enemies other than Israel; now consider the implications. Over the last fifty years, NATO has built up a huge sophisticated military force to confront the massive armies of Russia, the fourteen nations of the C.I.S., and the nations of Eastern Europe. However, the Arab nations confronting the tiny nation of Israel, have amassed huge armies that exceed NATO's military forces, by more than one-half million soldiers. There is no conceivable reason for the Arab states to devote such huge financial, technical, and manpower resources to their military forces, unless they are absolutely committed to the annihilation of the Jews of Israel!


The Jewish state is confronted with a combined Arab military force, far larger than the combined armies of North America and Europe, the countries that make up the forces of the NATO alliance. In light of the repeated Arab threats to destroy Israel, Israel cannot safely agree to surrender the military control of the West Bank. If the 80,000-man Palestinian army of the PLO, controlled the high mountainous region of the West Bank of Israel in a future war, the combined Arab armies could easily attack across the remaining narrow band of land along the Mediterranean Sea connecting northern and southern Israel. At certain points, this vital and strategic strip of coastal land connecting northern and southern Israel, is only nine miles wide between the West Bank and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel's military control of the strategic depth of the West Bank is essential, according to all military studies, to absorb and withstand the assault of combined Arab tank and infantry forces.


Numerous military studies by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, have concluded that if Israel ever surrenders military control of the West Bank, the Arab armies would be able to cut Israel in two, within a few hours, using their overwhelming Arab armored tank forces. If Israel negotiates the surrender of the military control of the West Bank to Arafat and the PLO, and allows the creation of a Palestinian state, Israel will not likely survive the coming war with the combined Arab armies. UN Security Resolution 242, the resolution that governs the continuing peace negotiations, guaranteed that Israel would retain "recognized and secure borders." Without that military control of the West Bank, Israel cannot win the next war. To be cotinued...

Prophetic Return of Christ: Are We Ready?

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is the greatest single theme in Scripture. While there are approximately three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold the first coming of Christ, there are more than eight times as many verses describing the Second Coming. In total, some 2400 verses throughout the Old and New Testaments reveal God's promises about the return of Jesus Christ. The enormous number of prophetic verses about the Second Coming underlines the vital importance of this event in God's plan for Mankind. Consequently, we dare not ignore the prophetic signs pointing to the nearness of His return.


Significantly, the first prophecy in the Bible (Genesis 3:15), which God addressed to Satan after Adam and Eve's sin, predicted three major events in the redemptive plan of God, concluding with the Second Coming of Christ. The first event was the virgin birth of Jesus ("her seed"); the second event was Satan's apparent victory when Jesus was crucified ("thou shalt bruise his heel"); the third event will be fulfilled at the Battle of Armageddon when Jesus Christ will defeat Satan ("thy head") and his seed, the Antichrist ("it [her seed, Jesus] shall bruise thy head"). 


The New Testament book of Jude recalls that the righteous patriarch Enoch was raptured to heaven before the Flood. Jude revealed that Enoch prophesied about the Second Coming, when the Lord would return to earth with millions of His saints. "Enoch, also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all'" (Jude 14­15).


The prophet John recorded our Lord's final prophecy in the final verses of the Book of Revelation: "And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Revelation 22:12). Jesus Christ's final message to His Church concludes with these words: "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). For thousands of years students of the Bible's ancient prophecies have pondered the question of whether they would live to witness the return of Christ to redeem the earth. Many Christians living in our generation naturally long for the return of Jesus Christ. Skeptics remind us that past generations of believers also longed for the Second Coming but died with the promise still unfulfilled. 


These skeptics naturally ask, "Why should we believe that our generation is the one that will witness the return of Christ when other generations were disappointed in their hopes?" After thirty years of careful Bible study, I am convinced that the overwhelming evidence concerning the fulfillment of these predictions in our generation, points to the return of Jesus Christ in our lifetime. Jesus and the other prophets described a number of specific prophecies that would occur in the lifetime of those who would see Him return with their own eyes. Is ours the generation that will see Christ coming for His Church?  An Article by Grant Jeffrey.

The Mark of the Beast: A CHOICE.

Most of the paranoia associated with false concepts about "the Mark of the Beast" comes from an underlying false assumption. That assumption is that the Mark of the Beast is something which may be IMPOSED upon you unsuspectingly, secretly, by subterfuge. 


Many people seem to believe that, though they wish to live good Christian lives, want to obey God, and do not want to come under the Mark of the Beast, that some insidious plotters in Europe, or in the Pentagon, or elsewhere, may be able to secretly impose this hated and mysterious Mark of the Beast upon them by causing them to comply with certain laws or requirements involving registration for a social security number, the issuance of a national identity card, or perhaps submitting to the implantation of a microchip, or an invisible tattoo!


But, notice this scripture and think deeply about what you will read!

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls [Greek: psuche, meaning "lives"] of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years!" (Revelation 20:4).

No one WORSHIPS computer-generated labels on food packages, or identity cards, or computer chips!


Notice carefully! The refusal of these individuals to worship the Beast or his image, or to receive his mark, and who are clearly pictured as being in the Kingdom of God - now exalted as co-RULERS with Jesus Christ - literally costs them their lives! BUT, it assured their continued possession of eternal life! Do you see?


Here, a conscious choice is to be made! Notice they refused to WORSHIP the Beast, or his image. That tells us they KNEW WHAT IT WAS ! They made a reasoned, conscious choice! Just as happened during the infamous "inquisition", when hundreds of thousands were put to death for refusing to give up their Bible-based faith, so the Beast and the False Prophet will be attempting to FORCE Christians to bow down to them in worship. 


They will refuse, choosing to OBEY GOD rather than man (Acts 4:10, 19; 5:32), and they will be martyred because of that choice! Actually, there were countless hundreds of thousands who were martyred during the Middle Ages for the very same reasons!


These people were put to death for refusing to worship the Beast, his IMAGE (the great false church; and ecclesiastical STATE, formed like a GOVERNMENT; patterned after the ancient Roman civil government), or to receive his identifying MARK. Notice Revelation 6:9, 10, where you see the picture of those who were slain for the Word of God, and who cry out, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"


These dead saints, pictured as crying out from their graves, were murdered MANY CENTURIES ago. It becomes obvious then, that the Beast; the image of the Beast, and the MARK of the Beast, have been around for a long, long time! Do you see? It is impossible for you to lose salvation "by accident"! It is utterly impossible for some power to so interfere in your life that it imposes upon you a symbol, identifying sign, some "mark" of some kind which causes you to LOSE OUT on salvation!


Notice! "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, and all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 


For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor POWERS, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" (Romans 8:35-39). Your Bible absolutely promises that NOTHING - the sword (armed force), principalities, powers - can separate you from the love of God, from salvation in and through Jesus Christ!


Read Revelation 20:4 again! Here, resurrected saints are seen as inheriting the thrones promised them by Jesus Christ! (Revelation 2:26; 3:21). They are resurrected because they were martyred. WHY were they martyred? Because they adamantly REFUSED to receive the Mark of the Beast. That should give you the positive reassurance that, even though some brutal men should forcibly hold you down, implant some kind of an identifying microchip under your skin; even though soldiers would literally hold your arms, hands, and legs and tattoo the numbers 666 right across your forehead, in great black ink, two inches high, IT STILL COULD NOT DEPRIVE YOU OF SALVATION! Therefore, such things ARE NOT the Mark of the Beast!


However, make no mistake! The Mark of the Beast is definitely something which will be ENFORCED - will become a matter of law, and people will be ordered to obey it! They will have to make a final, ultimate choice! That choice will be to either submit; to give in and cooperate with the coming socio/economic, military/spiritual system, called BABYLON THE GREAT, which is to emerge as a world SUPER POWER, or under the pain of DEATH, to refuse to cooperate - to refuse the Mark of the Beast! http://www.biblestudy.org/

Wars and Rumors of Wars...

This account of Matthew 24 speaks about the "End of the Age" ....and His disciples came to Him privately saying, "Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the End of the World?"...and Jesus [also] replied, "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.....All these are the beginning of sorrows.."


"Biblical prophecies indicate that three enormous wars will convulse the planet during the apocalyptic period known as "The Last Days," according to prophecy scholar, Grant Jeffrey, of Prophecy Online. "The first war, as described by Ezekiel, is the War of Gog and Magog (a Russian-Arab invasion against Israel). The second war, known as the Battle of Armageddon, will occur a minimum of seven years later. Armageddon is described in the prophecies of Joel, Zechariah, and especially the book of Revelation (16:16). This cataclysmic conflict, will involve Nations across the entire World as the significant Armies of the East, battle against the Armies of the West under the Antichrist.


These titanic armies will be pitted against each other, and Israel. During the conclusion of this struggle, Jesus Christ will descend from Heaven with His Army of Angels and heavenly Saints (the Resurrected Church).


Finally, Revelation 20:8 tells us about a third war, the final battle in human history. This will occur one thousand years after Armageddon, at the End of the Millennium. Millions of people born during the Millennium to those who survive the Tribulation period, will choose to join Satan in his attack against the future City of God. The prophet John foretold that his army would include the Nations of "Gog and Magog," referring to Russia and other Nations to the extreme North of the Holy Land.


In Ezekiel 38:7, the prophet foretells that in this future conflict, Russia (Magog) will also be the arm's supplier for all of these Nations. God says, "Be thou a guard unto them." It is fascinating to observe that the armories of these Nations (as listed by Ezekiel), without exception, are filled with Russian AK-47 assault rifles, SAM missiles, RPG7 anti-tank weapons and various other Russian-manufactured arms, exactly as the Bible foretold, thousands of years ago. The prophet described an invasion that would come without warning, in which the enemy invaded like a "storm" or "cloud to cover the land." It is possible that the prophet saw in vision, an airborne invasion force, like D- day, and used the best language he had available to describe such an event.


Bible prophecy also provides some insight into the ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Thousands of years ago, the prophet Ezekiel (chaps. 38­39) predicted that a huge confederacy of Arab nations under Russian leadership, would join together to attack Israel in the generation after the Jewish exiles returned to their homeland. Despite massive changes in Russia, the hard-liners in the KGB, the army, and military-industrial complex, maintain their solid grip on the levers of power. A recent study of the role of the military in Russia revealed that President Boris Yeltsin secretly appointed over 14,000 senior Military Generals to assume command of every single department of the Russian government in the spring of 1996. These departments included the health, agricultural, transportation, and mining ministries. Until the recent political changes in Russia, no men could rise above the rank of Major, in Russia's army, unless they were an approved member of the Russian Communist Party.


Therefore, the military officers controlling the "democratic" government of Russia are virtually all Communists. By this action, Yeltsin has allowed the Communist Party and their military allies, to secretly assume control over all major decisions in his government. Although Yeltsin won the June 1996 elections, the Communists hold a clear majority in the Duma (Parliament). Despite all the media hype about Russian democracy, the real leadership of Russia remains firmly in the hands of the resurrected Communist Party, the renamed KGB (now called the Foreign Intelligence Service), and the powerful army generals.


Twenty-six centuries ago the prophet Ezekiel prophesied that a military leader would arise in the land of Magog, to lead a Russian-Arab alliance of Nations to attack Israel. Ezekiel predicted that this leader would say, "I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates" (Ezekiel 38:11). 


It is interesting to note that, during the lifetime of Ezekiel and throughout history up until 1900, virtually all of the villages and cities in the Middle East had strong walls for defense. Ezekiel had never seen a village or city without defensive walls. Yet, in our day, Israel is truly a "land of unwalled villages" for the simple reason that modern techniques of warfare (bombs, tanks, and missiles) make city walls irrelevant for defense. This is one more indication, that his prophecy refers to our modern generation.


Since 1948, Israel has been forced to live as an armed camp, while surrounded by twenty-one Nations with two-hundred million Arabs that are publicly committed to her destruction."

A CLOSER LOOK AT ISRAEL...

Today, Israel has the world's third most powerful air force and possesses more tanks than any other nation except the United States and Russia. The Israeli Defense Forces have rewritten the military manuals of the world with their audacious and brilliant tactics. Today (according to many military analysts), the small nation of Israel has the fourth most powerful armed forces on Earth after America, Russia, and China.

Geographically, Israel occupies an area of land smaller than the state of New Jersey - only one-half the size of tiny Switzerland. Yet, despite its insignificant size and a population of only five million, Israel has attained a position of prime importance in the global struggle between nations. For the last several years, almost half of all of the resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations have concerned Israel. Newspapers throughout the world carry front-page stories about Israel several times a week. This astonishing fact can be explained only by prophecy and the deep hatred for Israel expressed by Russia, the former republics of the USSR, Iran, the Arab nations, and many Third World Nations.



Ironically, the first nation to formally recognize the state of Israel was Russia. In 1948, Joseph Stalin hoped that Israel would become a socialist nation and help offset the growing influence that the Western powers exercised in the Middle East. However, as Stalin soon came to realize, Israel would not become a Russian pawn, so Russia quickly turned to the Arabs and encouraged their hatred toward the Jewish state.
More than twenty-five hundred years ago, Ezekiel prophesied about an invasion by Russia (called "Magog") and her allies that would occur during the last days, "after many days." He said that after Israel was reborn as a nation, Russia and her allies would attack her in a violent attempt to completely annihilate the Jewish state.



Naturally, Ezekiel did not describe the present nations of Russia, Germany, Syria, and Iraq by their modern names. Rather, he referred to them by the names of the ancient tribes that occupied the geographical territories of the present nations at the time of his writing. The prophecies found in Ezekiel, chapter 38 and 39, describe this massive, future Russian-Arab invasion of Israel and the spectacular defeat of the enemies of the Jews by the supernatural act of God.Grant R. Jeffrey's Armageddon - Appointment With Destiny
please visit: http://www.theendtimespost-womanofworth.blogspot.com/