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."