“The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry bitterly. That day is A DAY OF WRATH (capitals mine), a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.”

Zephaniah 1:14-16

As I began to write this article thousands of rockets are being fired into Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah and Israel is responding with force!  It is very difficult today to turn on the TV or read the news reports and not see the horrific battles currently being waged in Israel and the Gaza Strip and not ask how all this could not fit in with End Times Bible prophecy. Afterall, there have always been “…wars and rumors of wars” ever since Israel declared their Independence on May 14, 1948. The Arab world and many anti-Semites throughout the rest of the world, including the U.S., ignore the fact God promised Abraham and his descendants (the Jews) the land of Israel forever, but they instead insist it was actually  “stolen” from the Palestinians. If only they knew the true history and that is BEFORE Palestine ever existed it was named Israel! In 135 AD, after the final rebellion of the Jews against their Roman oppressors, the Roman emperor Hadrian changed the name of the land from Israel to Palestine to hopefully and completely sever the ties of the Jews forever to their God Promised land. To this day, the battle between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac (Two Brothers from different Mothers are shaping today’s world! ) continues. But we know from many places in the Bible, this disagreement will end soon!

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”

Matthew 25:13

Let me be clear. Jesus Himself tells us no one would know when all of this would happen. We can not know the day. We won’t know the hour of fulfillment. BUT, Jesus also told us “…the generation would know”. In other words, the increasing frequency and intensity of other prophetic fulfillments will give those of us alive today personal witness of their development and we WILL KNOW we are in the Last Days! The unbeliever won’t know because they mock the prophecies of the Bible. They will simply view all of this as an ongoing Arab and Jewish battle for the land they probably believe belongs to the Palestinian Arabs, not the Jews. This is why it is so incumbent to not only tell them what the Bible tells us from 2,000 years ago but why we are now seeing so many critical prophecies, like the rebirth of the Nation of Israel, coming to fruition today. As Jesus said:

“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Matthew 24:34-35

 So, we won’t know the hour or the day but the generation will know and they will not pass (die off) before everything has been fulfilled exactly as the Bible has told us! The beginning of this only became possible with the prophetic regathering of the Jews to Israel from the four corners of the world and declaring their nation once again existed and was independent. Do the math. This happened officially on May 14, 1948, 73 years ago. Elsewhere in the Bible it is stated the age of a generation is 70 years or 80 years if you are stout of heart.

Here it is very critical to explain there will actually be THREE coming but separate wars, wars which are about to happen. These are known to Bible scholars as the War of Psalm 83 (inner circle neighbors of Israel); the War of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38 & 39) (the outer circle nations); and, the Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:13-14) (the entire world). The Bible is clear about the all the participants in each of these three wars, the Defender(s) of Israel and the ultimate prophesied outcome of these wars. And, they are all very different!

“The tabernacles of Edom (Southern Jordan), and the Ishmaelites (descendants of Ishmael, illegitimate son of Abraham, who today comprises people of Arab countries surrounding Israel); of Moab (today located in Jordan), and the Hagarenes (early conquerors of Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt); Gebal (coastline of Lebanon), and Ammon (Jordan), and Amalek (home of some Bedouins in Southern Israel); the Philistines (Palestinians today in Gaza Strip) with the inhabitants of Tyre (Lebanon); Assur (in Iraq near the Syrian border) is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Shelah.”

Psalm 83:6-8

“Thus saith the Lord God; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it (Israel) for the old hatred; Therefore saith the Lord God; Behold I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims (a people in South Palestine – Gaza Strip- whose territory borders on Judah, or Israel), and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with serious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay me vengeance upon them.”

Ezekiel 25:15-17

Many people believe the War of Psalm 83 may have already occurred when Israel declared their Independence. They were immediately attacked by their Muslim Arab neighbors in May 1948 and eventually were able to defeat those countries who surround the Nation of Israel. If you draw a circle around Jerusalem of 200 or 250 miles you can easily see every country on Israel’s borders TODAY are named in Psalm 83. Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq are within that radius and will ALL be totally defeated once and for all by the Israelis. Not directly by God and not by Jesus. Obviously from Scripture, we also see where no other countries, like the U.S., will come to their aid. Israel will do it all by themselves! The difference between this war and other earlier wars with their neighbors is Israel will not only defeat them but will finally gain control of most of the land originally Promised to Abraham by God. These countries (or their ruling parties like Hamas and Hezbollah) will attack Israel and will be defeated by the Israelis. Personally, I don’t believe this means the Jews will force all the people out of the conquered land but instead will bring about peace with a government that is not anti-Israel. Of course, this will greatly disturb other Arab nations, not on Israel’s borders but who are still anti-Israel. This will set up the second war, perhaps soon after, known as the War of Gog and Magog. If you remember the Scriptural Promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12.3, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,” I believe you know the ultimate outcome of these wars!

In a previous post (The War of Gog and Magog ), I discuss this second war where basically the countries of Russia, Turkey and Iran, along with a few other named Arab countries will invade Israel and will be defeated DIRECTLY by God IN ONE DAY! Interestingly, these three countries have never gotten along but a little over a year ago they formed for the first time in history a military alliance in Syria, on Israel’s northern border. When you look at the devastating loss of the Arab Muslim countries at the hands of their “Little Satan” and other countries response to their invasion will be to ask the invaders, “Have you come to take a spoil?” This may indicate Israel, perhaps through their recent major discovery of a huge natural gas field and their pipeline through Greece and Italy to supply natural gas to Europe who now buys most of their natural gas from Russia, or the long held goal of building their 3rd Holy Temple on the Temple Mount and the resulting questionable future of the Muslim religion; the critical supply of natural gas to Russia’s largest customer; and, the preservation of the religious sites on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem could easily persuade them to invade Israel. Obviously, Muslim countries will be very upset that Israel defeated their comrades in the War of Psalm 83. The Bible tells us directly God Himself will intervene in this war and He will destroy the armies of these 6 named countries in ONE DAY. It also tells us it will take the Israelis 7 months to bury the dead and 7 years to burn their implements of war. This becomes critical, as I will explain in a moment, to other prophecies regarding the confirming of the covenant, the Abomination of Desolation, the battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Imagine witnessing today the armies of Russia, Iran, Turkey, along with a few other smaller countries invading Israel and in one day five of every six of the invaders will die. The Bible says it will take time to clean up the mess! If we as a knowing Christian generation saw this happen, with all the exact numbers included (5 out of every 6 invaders dying, 7 months to bury the dead, 7 years to burn the implements of war, etc.) our faith would be greatly strengthened by the incredible accuracy of these Biblical prophecies. But, there is one other thing to consider. We know the anti-christ will arise and “confirm” THE covenant with Israel and other countries (Not Trump’s Abraham Accord, but God’s Abrahamic Covenant is about to be Confirmed!). Perhaps this is a direct result of the two previous wars and the global desire to put an end to the hostilities against Israel. From that day forward we then have a 7 year time period to the day during which the world will be reigned by the anti-christ. Exactly halfway through, after 3 1/2 years, he will enter the then rebuilt Jewish Holy Temple in Jerusalem and proclaim himself to be God and demand to be worshipped as God. This is referred to as the Abomination of Desolation (What is the Abomination of Desolation in Biblical Prophecy?). However, when the Jews see this happen they are told to flee immediately from Judea. So, if it takes 7 years to burn the implements of war and the Jews leave the area known as the West Bank 3 1/2 years before Christ Returns at Armageddon, doesn’t it make sense the War of Gog and Magog must then occur at least 10 1/2 years (7 years to burn the implements of war and the last 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation) before Christ Returns? If the Jews are gone from the area, who will continue to clean up the mess?

The last war of the three is the Battle of Armageddon. Whereas the army of Israel will defeat their neighbors in the War of Psalm 83 and God Himself will defeat those invaders of the War of Gog and Magog, it is Jesus Christ who will Return in the Last Days to defeat the anti-christ, throwing him and his side kick, the false prophet, into hell and who will defeat the armies of the world who have gathered together in Israel to once and for all put an end to the Jews. Satan, who is behind all of this, will be bound and thrown into a bottomless pit during the 1,000 year Millennium reign of Jesus Christ on earth.

“And out of his (Jesus) mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Revelation 19:15-16

There are many battles going on in Israel today but God has given us the wisdom beforehand to discern what these are all about and their ultimate outcome.

“Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing WITHOUT (capitals mine) revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.”

Amos 3:7

Don’t get me wrong! I am not a prophet. I am only relating what God told His prophets to tell us. If we don’t tell others what God told His prophets, what good are these warnings to us and our friends and family. By reading and studying the Bible, I am tremendously comforted knowing the history of fulfilled prophecies and those yet to come, along with the assurance it will all happen exactly as we have been told. We all have that responsibility, not to claim to be prophets, but to let others know what the Bible has told us would happen BEFORE it actually does happen. Jesus will Return one day and will reign in peace and justice on this earth for 1,000 years. That is why we have all been told to tell others of His Promises, not to scare people but to make them aware of His Word and to prepare for His Coming. That is why we have all been told to “…therefore comfort one another with these words.” It is all going to happen and current events say much of this could start today!

May God Bless you as we all prepare for His soon Return!