July 15, 2011
“Behold! I will send you ELIJAH THE PROPHET, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5).
W
e
are living in unprecedented times! It is a time totally unlike any
other in the almost 6,000 years of human history.
It is a time so critical to the survival of all human life that, as the late former president Ronald Reagan, termed it - “Armageddon!” - meaning the end of this world is at the door!
It is realized by the leaders of the nations of this world that human life now hinges on the elusive and vain hope that no madman who now possesses the hydrogen bombs with the missiles that can carry them to their preprogrammed targets will unleash this awesome, destructive power!
They also well know it is just a matter of time before someone will detonate those deadly bombs on some unsuspecting nation that could then branch out and trigger nuclear war with other nations who have the same bombs!
And many knowledgeable leaders and high-ranking officials worry about it! They know sooner or later this beautiful planet earth could well become a burned up barren planet without human life. Though it is not always voiced they feel it will be just a few short years at the most and all life will perish and be no more!
It was back in 1945 that the atomic age was born. This marked the beginning of the end of mankind’s human history, for it made possible the fulfillment of the end-time prophecies of the Bible (Ezekiel 6:6; 12:20)! Prophecies speak of the possible extinction of this physical universe, and would occur, except for the divine intervention of Jesus Christ as He returns to this earth.
Note an astonishing witness of the birth of the unleashing of the awesome power of the first experimental atomic explosion at Los Alamos, New Mexico, July 6, 1945:
“In Albuquerque, New Mexico, 120 miles away, a young girl was startled. ‘What was that?’ she exclaimed! People were astonished, for the girl was totally blind! 120 miles from where it was born the blind girl saw the flash of the 1st atomic bomb.” Excerpts from the Book: The Distant Thunder.
The director of Los Alamos said upon witnessing the first test of a nuclear weapon:
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." ‘I suppose we all felt that one way or another.’ J. Robert Oppenheimer
To further give us an idea of the beginning of this awesome, power of death and massive destruction, consider the two very small atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan: After its initial test, it was just 21 days later that the first one was dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945, and 3 days later on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945.
Those two large cities were obliterated with the loss of multiple thousands of lives in each city and brought to a close World War II in 1945 with Japan.
W
ith
a brilliant, blinding flash of pure intense light the “Little
Boy” atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Monday,
August 6, 1945, with a force of 15 kilotons of explosive
power and left 130,000
people dead! The
temperature rose on the ground beneath the explosion to 7,000
degrees.
Clothes
were burnt
on people for one and
one-fourth mile radius from the explosion center. The wind velocity
on the ground beneath the explosion center was 980 miles/hr.
(Statistics from web-sites.)
A
few days later, August 9, 1945, “Fat
Man,”
a second atom bomb with a force of 22 kilotons of explosive, was
dropped on Nagasaki and left 80,000 people dead!
These death figures do not take into account all who later died or were maimed for life as the result of the blast from these two terrifying and destructive fiery atomic bombs.
The Hydrogen Bomb
As awesome as the destructive power of the atom bomb is, it can be likened to a stick of dynamite in comparison to the hydrogen bomb! It is so powerful it requires an atom bomb to trigger it!
When the smaller version of the hydrogen bomb was first tested it was placed down inside an island; and after it was triggered the island turned a fiery red and then melted into the sea.
One observer wrote in a letter of his eyewitness account of this fiery detonation: “I could hardly believe my eyes. A flame about two miles was shooting five miles into the sky . . . You would swear the whole world was on fire . . . About fifteen minutes after shot time the island on which the bomb had been set off from started to burn and it turned a brilliant red. It burned for about six hours. During this time it was gradually getting smaller. Within six hours . . . a mile-wide island had disappeared!”
The first H-bomb ever, “Mike,” was exploded at 7:15 on local time on November 1st, 1952. The mushroom cloud was 8 miles across and 27 miles high. The canopy was 100 miles wide. Radioactive mud fell out of the sky followed by heavy rain. 80 million tons of earth was vaporized. Mike was the first ever megaton yield explosion.
Castle
Romeo was a lithium-deuteride fueled H-bomb exploded 1 March 1954 at
Bikini Atoll. It yielded 15 megatons and had a
fireball 4 miles in diameter. It was
much bigger than
the test had been expecting . . . It menaced task force ships, one on
which was Marshall Rosenbluth, a U.S. theoretical physicist, “I
was on a ship that was 30 miles away, and we had this horrible white
stuff raining down on us . . . It was pretty frightening.
“There was a huge fireball with these turbulent rolls going in and out. The thing was glowing! It looked to me like a diseased brain up in the sky. It spread until the edge of it looked as if it was almost overhead.
“The area was illuminated by a huge and expanding flash of blinding light. A raging fireball of intense heat that measured into the millions of degrees shot skyward at a rate of 300 miles an hour. Within minutes the monstrous cloud, filled with nuclear debris, shot up more than 20 miles and generated winds hundreds of miles per hour.
“It was a much more awesome sight than a puny little atomic bomb. It was a pretty sobering and shattering experience.” Bravo vaporized a crater 250' deep and 6,500' in diameter out of the atoll rock. The “horrible white stuff” was calcium precipitated from vaporized coral.
Bravo was a thousand times more powerful than the Fat Man and Little Boy atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Fallout was scattered over more than 7,000 square miles of ocean and islands, resulting in the contamination and exposure of military and civilian U. S. personnel working on the shot, and people of the islands who were moved earlier to a supposedly “safe” island but received large amounts of radiation. Acute radiation effects were observed among some of these people. From the Film Description for Operation castle, DOE, Nevada Office.
Sometime later the Soviets put together H-bombs with a yield of 100 megatons, but the design was never tested at full strength. (Information and pictures from the Internet.)
Devastation from an H-bomb Explosion
To enable us to understand in greater detail the devastation and the killing of mankind from just a one megaton H-bomb, a few quotes will be taken from an interview that appeared in the August, 1982 issue of the Plain Truth magazine.
Dr. Caldicott, a native of Australia, is a former Harvard University professor of medicine and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. In an interview with the Plain Truth, she summed it up: “Survival is the only thing that matters. All other issues pale into total insignificance.
“In the first milliseconds after detonation [of the H-bomb] of a one megaton nuclear weapon, gamma radiation would kill everything within six miles. An electromagnetic pulse created by the nuclear blast would fuse all unprotected circuitry within several hundred miles, knocking out communication. A fireball would consume everything within 280 square miles in 10 seconds, followed by a blast wave that would flatten remaining structures within 4.5 miles and severely damage other buildings dozens of miles away. If the device exploded above the ground, hundreds of tons of debris, now highly radioactive, would be thrown into the air, returning and settling for days afterwards as fine, deadly ash.
“And the long-term effects are as devastating as the initial blast. If the device exploded at ground level the surrounding area would be uninhabitable for decades. . . . Burn victims and the injured would find hospitals obliterated by the blast or clogged with other victims.
“In short, society as we know it would be taxed to the limits by a single blast, and unable to function in the event of a major nuclear attack.”
Fall-out Shelters and Planned Evacuation
Shortly after entering into the atomic and hydrogen bomb age this country realized the grave danger to the nation and its people— fall-out shelters and evacuation sprang up overnight. Evacuate the cities and flee to the countryside was the plan!
N
either
plan lasted very long, but long enough for civil defense officials to
sound the warning that without civil defense, the nation was doomed.
Millions of people responded and volunteered for civil defense activity during that time but became disillusioned after experimentation and found neither would work. The inevitable conclusion was that neither the fallout shelters nor the effort of evacuating cities was possible to save lives. It was hopeless!
And the very fact that the fallout shelters can no longer be found and directions in the cities pointing the way to the countryside make known there is no safety to be found anywhere by any means for anyone. All of mankind is vulnerable and open to a fiery death from the skies.
It is just a matter of when!
A
nd
Bible prophecy makes known this will happen very similar to what took
place on September 11, 2001, when terrorists flew two huge passenger
planes into the Twin Towers in New York City and another one into the
Pentagon in Washington, D. C. Almost 3,000 people lost their lives
because of those planes being turned into deadly, fiery
bombs!
This was a very sobering time in this country, for no one would have believed this could ever take place here, but it did!
The Unthinkable Will Happen
Based on the prophecies of Holy Scripture, the time is almost upon us when the unthinkable will once again take place in the nations of Israel. Tragically, the House of Israel will not survive this time as nations, as Scripture makes known:
“. . . In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste [which can only be done by nuclear warfare], and the high places shall be laid desolate” (Ezekiel 6:1-6; 12:20).
With these nuclear bombs falling on key cities in the United States, such as New York City, Chicago, Washington, D. C, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Boston, New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Denver, etc., the surviving people would be left devastated and completely helpless.
There will be no media, no communication, and no place to turn to for help! No place to go for food and water supplies that would be free from radioactive contamination!
I
n
addition, there will be the great scarcity of food
due to the
destruction of very limited stored food supplies, and also from the
very strong impact of the prophesied famine (Joel,
etc.).
After the nuclear attack, Scripture reveals the people who survive will be in a state of great distress:
“. . . there will be great tribulation [Great Distress, NIV Translation] such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved [alive, Moffatt Translation] . . .” (Matthew 24:21-22).
End-time Biblical prophecy makes known this planet earth will soon experience nuclear warfare that will be beyond belief, comprehension, and description!
Nations Possessing the Big Bombs
So many nations now possess these nuclear weapons that just one despotic ruler could trigger a nuclear World War III that could destroy all human life on this planet!
America and Russia both have enough of these big bombs stockpiled to destroy all human life many times over! And other nations have also stockpiled the same weaponry.
A
tomic
submarines of both the United States and Russia continually prowl the
ocean floors; submarines that carry sixteen upright missiles each one
with a range of 3000 miles!
Each one equipped with ten independently targeted warheads. Each warhead packed with 50 kilotons of awesome destructive power.
Sixteen missiles “60 warheads” the equivalent of eight million tons of TNT with more explosive power than the entire Allied air forces dropped on Germany and Japan during World War II, all neatly stowed on one single submarine. (This information presented here was accurate 30 years ago.)
Think about the continued advancement of military technology! We should realize it is much greater and more sophisticated today with far more powerful atomic and hydrogen bombs that would have a far more deadly and destructive impact on the intended targets!
To give us some insight of the nuclear submarines, consider the recent accident of two of them and what could possibly have happened as the result:
Nuclear War at Sea
On February 26, 2009 Der Spiegel Online wrote:
"
The
collision of two strategic nuclear submarines [owned by the French
and the British] earlier this month shows that the Cold War is still
being fought every day in the Atlantic -- with the world's most
powerful weapons... It quickly became clear that a nuclear
catastrophe had almost occurred out at sea -- and that it could
happen at any time...
"Vanguard and Le Triomphant aren't ordinary attack submarines -- they're rare and extremely expensive ballistic missile submarines. The British have four, as do the French, the Americans have 14, the Russians 15, and the Chinese are believed to have three. The hull of the Vanguard, as tall as a four-story building and roughly 150 meters (492 feet) long, contains a nuclear reactor and 16 ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads with a combined power more than 300 times greater than that of the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima...
"Neither the British nor the French are willing to reveal when, where, and exactly how it happened... Strategic submarines are high-tech weapons with an archaic mission: to exact revenge. And they are built for the day the world comes to an end...The submarines... are designed to retaliate with such force that there can be no winners in a nuclear war...
"That leaves the Russians. The 173-meter (567-foot) Dimitry Donskoy, for example, is the world's largest strategic submarine... According to the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, the Donskoy could 'simultaneously destroy dozens of cities like New York, or level half of Afghanistan.'"
The Modern Use of Missiles
From the Desert Storm War it was learned that missiles could be directed to an exact target, even propelled through a small doorway from the fast flying fighter planes.
It is presumed that large bomber planes of both Russia and the United States still fly the skies on a continual basis with those same powerful nuclear bombs.
The manpower operating the planes and submarines along with the underground nuclear-tipped missiles are preprogrammed and in an ever-ready state of preparation to send them to their pre-assigned targets upon receiving the coded word from those who are authorized at the highest levels of government.
The president of the United States is continually followed by a man with a small briefcase who has all the necessary codes to launch a nuclear counter attack if proven evidence makes known this nation is to be attacked with the same nuclear arsenal.
Russia and all the other nations who possess this nuclear weaponry are always prepared as well and wait for the word to use them.
To add to the already existing worries there are also the smaller nations who will soon have the same destructive power at their disposal. Soon most of the nations on this earth will also have the same weaponry. A real concern at this writing is the nations of North Korea and Iran.
Would one or more of them use them? Consider the ominous comment of a well-known American essayist:
“. . . until now the world’s great armies have always gone to war sooner or later. The great fleet of Darius, the Roman legions, the Spanish Armada and the Wehrmacht were all intended for war, and that is what they were used for. Why should the present situation end any differently?”
The Terrifying Realization
The terrifying realization of this known fact is that one of the leaders of these nations will give the word to use them when given the right circumstances.
The United States invaded Iraq to prevent the leader of that nation from fully developing and using this same destructive power. The former leaders have already proven they would use them as evidenced by killing people in their own nation through the use of biological weaponry.
The leader of North Korea has already made threats to use his nuclear bombs if he feels his nation is threatened. Recent news revealed they are now within range of the United States.
In addition, we have learned through the news media of the existing hostility between Pakistan and India that sometimes is in danger of spilling over. Both nations possess the big bombs.
The small nation of Israel is considered to have the same bombs and would very well use them if they had to in order to survive as a nation and a people. It has been said by them there will never be another Masada!
What does history record about Masada, a mountain fortress in Judea?
“
Josephus
Flavius dramatically recounts the story told him by two surviving
women. The defenders – almost one thousand men, women and
children – led by Eleazar ben Ya’ir, decided to burn the
fortress and end their own lives, rather than be taken alive. “And
so met (the Romans) with the multitude of the slain, but could take
no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor
could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution,
and at the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of
them had shown, when they went through with
such an action as that was.
The Zealots cast lots to choose 10 men to kill the remainder. They then chose among themselves the one man who would kill the survivors. That last Jew then killed himself.”
If this should prove to be true then, as it was with Samson, they would pull down the foundations of the living if necessary to preserve their lives and nation!
The Impossible Task
Though the house of Joseph and other nations of Israel are doing all they can to keep the nations who now have these bombs under control, they also know the improbability of being able to do this on a permanent basis. It is realized that it is only a matter of time until someone unleashes the big bombs.
This is why former president Reagan, as well as others at times used the unspeakable word - Armageddon!
God’s Warning Promise
It is in this setting of the end-time that God promised to send a special man to WARN this world that Armageddon will indeed take place - UNLESS there should be repentance! Meaning a turning around from their wrong ways and turning to God with real humility while seeking forgiveness for the many sins plaguing the nations of Israel and the nations of this world!
AND FAILING THAT - Jesus Christ will come in the very nick of time to prevent mankind from completely destroying himself from this planet.
“. . . not a soul would be saved alive; . . .” (Matthew 24:22, Moffatt Translation)!
More about this special man a bit later on in this writing; along with the WARNING God used him to give to His people Israel, and also to the world. It would be a last ditch effort to try and save the nations of Israel from the coming horrors
Armageddon is Coming
What does the name, Armageddon, mean? Looking in a Dictionary will give the meaning that corresponds to the meaning in the Bible.
For example, see the following definition:
Webster’s New World Dictionary, Armageddon: Greek – Harmageddon. The place where the last decisive battle between the forces of good and evil is to be fought before Judgment Day.
That decisive battle will be entered into and fought by the giant armies of Europe and Asia. Each one will be pitted against the other with an all-out effort to gain control and rule over the nations and peoples of the earth!
World War III
Shortly before Armageddon, Holy Scripture makes known the Holy Roman Empire is to be revived and is definitely on its way (Daniel 2:28, 23-35; Revelation 13:1-22)! It has had its beginning planning since the closing part of World War II with the objective of World War III in mind and the conquering of Britain and America.
Toward the end of World War II noted authors wrote that underground planning by Germany for a future war began at that time to bring about the demise of Israel as nations; and it continues yet today. And Bible prophecy makes known their plans will not be in vain for they will win in this coming war.
The end-time has dawned for this age (Ezekiel 7:6-7)! And with it— soon, very soon, will materialize the Revival of the Holy Roman Empire, as was prophesied to take place in the end-time by the Apostle John and the Prophet Daniel:
“And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron BREAKS in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that CRUSHES, that kingdom will BREAK in pieces and CRUSH all others” (Daniel 2:40, 44).
This kingdom has been pre-planned since 1944! Upon realizing the war was lost as early as 1944 Nazi Officials in Germany went underground and began their planning for WWIII as the following article makes known:
Mail Online News
By Adam Lebor Last updated at 10:30 PM on 9th May 2009
“The paper is aged and fragile, the typewritten letters slowly fading. But US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128 is as chilling now as the day it was written in November 1944.
“The document, also known as the Red House Report, is a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials ordered an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany's post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis' return to power and work for a 'strong German empire'. In other words: the Fourth Reich. . . . The industrialists included representatives of Volkswagen, Krupp and Messerschmitt. Officials from the Navy and Ministry of Armaments were also at the meeting and, with incredible foresight, they decided together that the Fourth German Reich, unlike its predecessor, would be an economic rather than a military empire - but not just German. . . .” Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1179902/Revealed-The-secret-report-shows-Nazis-planned-Fourth-Reich--EU.html#ixzz1R9Dr3Blt
WWII Underground Pre-Planning Coming into Reality— The following internet headline reveals an insight few people have of this ongoing undercover planning since WWII— the planning is approaching reality as the following article reveals:
“The Greek crisis brings us even closer to the long-planned European empire” By Norman Tebbit Politics Last updated: June 23rd, 2011
“Lord Tebbit of Chingford is one of Britain's most outspoken conservative commentators and politicians. He was a senior cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government and is a former Chairman of the Conservative Party. . . . His quote:
“It would be very easy to think that current events in Greece are just a continuation of that same problem (of the Greeks seeking gifts).
“That would be to misunderstand the grand strategy being pursued in Brussels. It is designed to achieve, without recourse to war, the realization of a dream unfulfilled since the fall of Rome, the first pan-European Empire. Spain, France and Austro Hungary failed in their attempts to build such an Empire and after yet another destructive European war, the founding fathers of the EU swore to achieve through politics what warfare had failed to deliver. . . .”
In view of the prophesied revival of the Roman Empire in Europe, this insightful writing by Lord Tibbett is startling and eye-opening to say the least for it connects with the Nazi Officials instructions to the Industrialists in 1944 to plan for the 4th Reich! The planning over time shifted to Brussels and the EU as Lord Tibbett makes known.
Current news (7-16-2011) reveals that it could have its beginning as early as this summer:
Demonstrations are gathering pace in Spain and Italy
Wednesday
July 13,2011 By Patrick
O'Flynn
“FIRST for the rather dramatic bad news: a United States of Europe will come into being by the end of the year, perhaps even by the end of the summer.
“Now for the good news: Britain won’t be part of it.
“Europe’s finance ministers are even now preparing a “big bang” solution to the debt crises that are sweeping peripheral members of the eurozone. . . .”
It will take a little more time to see the prophesied fullness of it; but when it does the world will be astonished by seeing this enormous beast power – emerging to life, not by politics, but brought about by the Pope in Rome (Revelation 13:1-3, 11-18). This great power will bring about WWIII and the conquering of the nations of Israel – and the Great Tribulation!
The Battle of Armageddon
Afterwards the battle at Armageddon will take place. This will be at the time when a conglomeration of Asian nations will be drawn into war against the European nations after having been attacked by Europe (Revelation 9, plus).
As we may recall, it was during WWII that Germany invaded Russia. And Bible prophecy makes known that history will once again repeat itself for the same will take place in this coming time.
History does indeed have a way of repeating itself over and over again! And it will repeat itself once more in this coming time basically for the very same reasons as in the previous two world wars in this past century, and essentially by the same nations. This will become World War III!
Alarmingly, this will lead to Armageddon! The time is now very near when it will become a reality, so says the warnings from Scripture.
This tremendous climatic battle of the war between the European and Asian armies will occur in the valley of Jehoshaphat. The main part of the clash between the two huge armies will take place around Jerusalem. Half of Jerusalem will fall victim to these forces before Jesus Christ intervenes and takes total possession of it (Zechariah14:2; Joel 3:13; Revelation 19:15; Psalm 2).
Jehoshaphat means - Judgment of JHVH- meaning, Judgment of the LORD. It will be in that Valley where Jesus Christ will intervene as He returns to this earth and then deals severely with those nations who will be gathered there, just as the following Scripture makes known:
“I will also gather ALL NATIONS and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will ENTER INTO JUDGMENT with them there. . . .” (Joel 3:2; Revelation 16:12-14, 16).
T
hough
these enormous armies (200 million - just on the Asian side,
Revelation 9:16), will gather in Armageddon, or field of
Megiddo
(70 miles N. W. of Jerusalem - a natural meeting place),
but
will engage in war in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
God will be Watching
God will be viewing very intently the vain effort of these armies who will be directed by the mastermind of all evil, Satan the devil! Once again Satan will make the effort to destroy all humankind as he was able to do at the time of the Flood, with the lone exception of Noah and his family, eight people in all (Genesis 6:11-13,17; 7:19-23).
In reality, without the kings of both armies fully realizing it, they will be making the effort of breaking any connections with God and His Son Jesus Christ, just as Satan attempted billions of years ago when he tried to topple God from His throne in heaven above (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:14-16).
God will laugh at their puny efforts:
“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD (in reality), and against His Anointed saying, Let us break their bonds (obliterate completely any knowledge of God and His laws) in pieces, and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens SHALL LAUGH (in scorn); the LORD shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in HIS WRATH, and distress them in His deep displeasure . . . You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. . . .” (Psalm 2:1-5, 9).
Jesus Christ Himself will descend from heaven above and enter into the atmosphere of this earth with His angelic forces (Revelation 19:11-21). He will then speak to them in His wrath and hot displeasure:
“The LORD will CAUSE HIS GLORIOUS VOICE TO BE HEARD, and SHOW THE DESCENT of His arm (AWESOME AND INCREDIBLE POWER), with the indignation of HIS WRATH, AND THE FLAME OF A DEVOURING FIRE, WITH SCATTERING, TEMPEST, AND HAILSTONES” (Isaiah 30:30; Revelation 16:17-21).
Isaiah the prophet reveals further the almost total decimation of humankind due to this coming horrendous warfare, and the pouring out of the plagues of God on them (Revelation 16:1-21):
“The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away; the haughty people of the earth languish. The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance (statute), broken the everlasting ordinance. Therefore THE CURSE has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are BURNED, AND FEW MEN LEFT” (Isaiah 24:4-6).
When looking at the number of people found in Scripture to suffer the horrible pangs of death, and consider what Isaiah wrote about there being ONLY A FEW MEN LEFT, indicates the probability of only about 10 percent of mankind will survive these coming tumultuous times.
Due to the conventional and nuclear warfare weaponry that will be unleashed on each other along with the pouring out of the plagues from God on the armies gathered there, the wholesale slaughter of the multiple millions of the armies on both sides in that valley will be so violent and destructive that the blood will flow up to the height of a horse’s bridle (about four feet) for almost 200 miles! A river of blood!
So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great wine press of the WRATH OF GOD. And the wine press was trampled outside the city (Jerusalem), and BLOOD came out of the wine press UP TO THE HORSE’S BRIDLES FOR ONE THOUSAND AND SIX HUNDRED FURLONGS” (a distance of almost 200 miles, Revelation 14:19-20).
The LORD God speaks of that time and what He will do to keep those evil leaders from destroying all of mankind:
“. . . I have trodden down the peoples (armies) in My anger, made them drunk in My fury, and brought down their strength to the earth” (Isaiah 63:1-6; Zechariah 14:1-3, 12-13).
The Holy Bible does truly make known the feared word, Armageddon, will take place, and soon! And when it does it will be such a time of great horror and devastation that the loss of lives will run into the billions:
So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year (Note: A specific time is already planned by God as to when this will take place!), were released TO KILL A THIRD OF MANKIND (2 billion, plus! – Revelation 9:15).
It will be a time when all human life would be totally destroyed, except for the divine intervention of Jesus Christ:
“And UNLESS those days were shortened NO FLESH would be saved alive!”(Matthew 24:22, Moffatt Translation)
Invasion from Outer Space
A Possible Scenario Based on Truth: As these armies wage war against each other, they will then SEE the visible Jesus Christ and His huge armies of angels descending to earth riding white horses (Revelation 1:7; 19:11-16)!
Due to the teaching of false prophesies the European army will believe this to be the Anti-Christ coming to attack them from outer space!
They will then turn their weaponry against Christ! And seeing a no-win situation, and losing their own lives ending in terrible deaths, their effort will be an attempt to take all human life with them!
The order will be sent to their bombers, submarines, and the launching of missiles, to unleash their entire nuclear arsenal on all the remaining nations on earth, and thus all life would be blasted off the face of this planet!
However, Christ will intervene just before the order is carried out and prevent it from taking place just as He promised for the sake of His true people (Matthew 24:21-22). And because of the fulfillment of that promise, based on the indication of Scripture, there will be less than one billion people from the present almost seven billion people who will survive and live over into the new world.
Satan will influence the despotic leaders of these giant opposing armies to do this very thing; for this has been his avowed purpose from the beginning of the creation of mankind!
If God were to permit Satan to fulfill his purpose of annihilating mankind through an all-out nuclear holocaust this earth would then become as we find it at the beginning of the six-day re-creation, in darkness, chaos, and confusion - a total wreckage! (Genesis 1:2).
This was the condition of the earth before Adam and Eve were created; a condition that had been brought about after Satan and his demons were cast back down to earth in defeat following their gigantic effort of fighting against the angels of God trying to topple God in heaven from His throne and replace Him (Ezekiel 28:14-16; Isaiah 14:12-15).
But, Christ will intervene just as He did with Satan before they will do it and stop it:
“. . . When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels IN FLAMING FIRE taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction FROM THE PRESENCE of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (II Thessalonians (1:7-9)
Armageddon does indeed picture and point to the end of this present evil world as we now know it.
New Respect for God
Due to all the horrors the survivors of mankind will have lived through, and seeing warfare being replaced by peace, they will come to KNOW the true God just as He said they would; 62 times in the Book of Ezekiel alone.
As the result, they will come to have a new and growing respect for the Almighty God and Jesus Christ. At the same time they will become very repentant and receptive to His teachings and laws that will be taught to them by the members of His Family (Jeremiah 31:1-14; Revelation 20:4-6; Daniel 7:18, 22).
“In that Day (of severe correction) a man will LOOK TO HIS MAKER (Creator God, Genesis 1:26-28) and his eyes WILL HAVE RESPECT FOR THE HOLY ONE (God) of Israel. He will NOT look (any longer) to the altars (of Baal and Asherah), the work of his hands; he will NOT respect what his fingers have made, nor the wooden images (margin: or Asherim, Canaanite deities), NOR the incense altars. In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough . . . and there will be desolation. BECAUSE YOU HAVE FORSAKEN the God of your salvation” (Isaiah 17:7-10).
It will truly come to be A Wonderful World, totally unlike the world of today, for it will be a world that will be ruled by Jesus Christ who will have returned to this earth. All of mankind will come to know Him and become obedient to His holy and righteous laws.
Terrible Times to First Come on Israel
Before these terrible things take place, God has made known He would send a special man that He calls in Scripture, the Elijah. This man would pave the way for the return of Jesus Christ while WARNING Israel and the world of what is now just before us and what will follow, Armageddon!
The alternative is repentance as it came to be in Israel during the days of the ancient prophet, Elijah. However what is now seen in the House of Joseph repentance appears to be totally out of the question. As the result, terrible times are very close at hand for them and the world.
Possibly three and one-half years before Armageddon, there will be very horrible and tragic corrective measures, described in Scripture as the Great Tribulation, to come upon Israel. In particular, it will come upon the House of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) because they are the primary leaders of the other Tribes of Israel! They lead the others by example in a downward spiraling rejection of God and His holy and righteous laws.
The Acceleration of Sin
Upon reflection, it has only been a few short years since Israel has come into this almost total godless state of human existence! (This will be covered in other chapters of this writing.)
From the very founding of the United Kingdom and the United States of America there has been what could be defined as a minimal rejection of God as a whole until the latter part of the 20th century. From there it has reached virtually to a non-existent belief in the true God and rejection of His laws.
God Acknowledged at End of WWII
There is documentation that God was still recognized and prayers made by the leaders of both nations to Him in World War II. They recognized the winning of battles and the victory of that world war being due to His intervention.
History records there were changes in the weather at very important times and the capture of code machines of the enemy! This made possible knowing in advance the planning of future sea and land battles by Japan and Germany.
B
ritain’s
Chief Air Marshall, Sir Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-Chief, Fighter
Command, clearly stated why he thought the British won the Battle of
Britain: “I say with absolute conviction
that I can
trace the intervention of God, not
only in the
battle itself, but in the events which led up to it, and that if it
had not been for this intervention, the battle would have been joined
in conditions which humanly speaking, would have rendered victory
impossible.”
T
his
nation was just barely ahead of Germany in developing the atomic
bomb. It does not take much of an imagination to see what would have
taken place had Germany completed it first. Certainly, the world
would be far different today than what we now see about us. Knowing
of the development of this bomb by the United States, Prime Minister
Winston S. Churchill, speaking to 3,000 Britains on October 31, 1942,
solemnly stated
”I have a feeling sometimes that some Guiding Hand has interfered. I have a feeling that we have a Guardian because we have a great Cause and we shall have that Guardian as long as we serve that Cause faithfully.”
Our Last Chance
C
onsider
excerpts from a historic speech that was given by General MacArthur
to the American people following the surrender of the Japanese aboard
the battleship Missouri:
“
Today
the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has
been won . . . As I look back on the long tortuous trail from those
grim days of Bataan and Corregidor, when an entire world lived in
fear, when democracy was on the defensive everywhere, when modern
civilization trembled in the balance, I
thank a merciful
God that He has given us the faith, the courage and the power from
which to mold victory . . . Men since the
beginning of
time have sought peace . . . Military alliances, balances of power,
leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be
by way of the crucible of war. We have had
our last chance.
If we do not now devise some greater and
more equitable
system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is
theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of
human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless
advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural
developments of the past two thousand years. It
must be of
the spirit if we are to save the flesh. . . .”
Miracles by God were performed at Dunkirk and at other key needed times during World War II to make possible the survival of these two great nations. God spared both nations because of His promise made to Abraham millennia ago; blessings that were passed from him to his great-great-grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh, through the laying on of the hands of his grandson, Jacob, who had been renamed Israel, by the LORD (Genesis 48:12).
The Rejection of God
It was after World War II that both great nations began their real slide into the degrading morass of sins we are witnessing today. This was made possible by the legalization of rulings by the top courts of the land and the acceptance of all of it by the overwhelming majority of the populace. The moral sliding continues and has almost reached bottom!
There is no possible way of stopping the soon-coming consequences of these terrible sins short of sincere, godly repentance! And by what we witness in whatever nation we may live, repentance is unacceptable by the masses in this present age! It has gone too far and is accepted by too many uncaring people who show no inclination or desire of repentance!
The repentant changes God would require are too great due to the acceptance of so much evil that is now so deeply rooted and expansive in the entire society.
T
he
leaders on almost every level, along with the majority of the peoples
in both once-great nations, are involved in one way or another in
areas that are an abomination to God!
Over the past few decades they have developed tolerance and acceptance of these abominable sins through political pressure and complacency; sins that will be further defined later in this writing.
After viewing the half-time program at Super Bowl XXXV111, February 1, 2004, and the “wardrobe malfunction” of Janet Jackson, one writer very ably asked the question:
“Just how long does the United States believe it can continue on its present course? America is on the road to ruin and yet individuals refuse to see the U. S. for what it is - a nation without God. We are a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, but we are sugar coating our spiritual bankruptcy because political correctness is eating away and rotting our very soul as a nation.
“We are in deep trouble as a country and continue to give God the spiritual finger everyday by how we live. America is going to find that we will need the very Creator who is being told to butt out of everyday life. . . .”
An Overall View
Because of the continued involvement and acceptance of these unabashed and abominable sins by the majority of the peoples of all the nations of Israel, God will first deal severely with His own chosen people, Israel! Afterwards, He will deal with the remaining nations of this world for their own grievous sins.
God even reveals to us the actual numbers of those who will die in the nations of Israel, and how they will die in this soon coming time.
Those who survive this terrible holocaust will be removed into other nations.
M
ultiple
millions will then have their lives end
in various ways
to include the crematoriums that will be re-created for that purpose,
as was done with the Jews in World War II. Those who survive after
all this will be sold to other
nations and will become
their slaves:
“One third of you will die of the pestilence (disease epidemics), and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword (warfare) all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them” (Ezekiel 5:12).
God further describes what it will be like at that time:
“Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, AND A LESSON, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken. When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for their destruction (bring to our knees from the super power we now are), and which I will send to destroy you, I will INCREASE the famine upon you and CUT OFF YOUR SUPPLY OF BREAD. So I will send against you FAMINE and WILD BEASTS, and they will BEREAVE you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, THE LORD, HAVE SPOKEN” (Ezekiel 5:14-17).
NOTE: There are many wild beasts in this country and various kinds: mountain lions, coyotes, bears, and even tigers. For example, the Sunday Edition of Parade Magazine of 10-30-05, page 10, wrote of the DANGER in our backyards from tigers that are kept by many people in this country. Officials say there could be as many as 7,000 pet tigers in the United States.
Think about this as well as all the other wild animals that will be looking for anything to eat when times get bad, including dog packs running amuck due to their being turned loose by owners who will no longer be able to feed and care for them (Leviticus 26:22; Deuteronomy 28:26).
Scripture reveals God will then use a revived Roman Empire in Europe to launch a strategic nuclear attack that will flatten our cities and destroy the House of Joseph and other tribes of Israel (Daniel 2:40-44; 7:15-25; Revelation 13:17):
The prophet Ezekiel reveals the terrible aftermath of this nuclear attack against Israel:
“And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel BEFORE THEIR IDOLS, and I will SCATTER your bones all around YOUR ALTARS. In ALL your dwelling places THE CITIES SHALL BE LAID WASTE, and the high places (pagan worship) shall be desolate” (Ezekiel 6:5-6; 12:20).
(To have further understanding, please read the last chapter of the United States and Britain in Prophecy by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong on our website: www.cog-ff.com)
The Book of Ezekiel is very important for the understanding of end-time prophetic events; some of which is very near to being fulfilled.
The Book of Ezekiel
It seems necessary at this point to establish proof that the Book of Ezekiel was written for the end-time, and not for ancient Israel, as some would have us believe.
This book was written about 595 B. C. By checking the years at the time, we can readily see that Israel had already gone into captivity some 127 years before the time that Ezekiel prophesied, 718-721 B. C. (II Kings 17:5-6). As the result, this Book never reached Israel.
With this in mind it is easy to understand that God intended it for our day and time as these and other prophecies make plain to the understanding mind.
God’s Chosen Nation Israel
To enable us to understand why God will deal so severely with Israel before He deals with the other nations in the days ahead, we need to remove the blindfold to the understanding of the identity of Israel in this day and age.
This understanding is essential if we are to grasp more fully WHY God would send another Elijah to us before these terrible times befall us.
Millennia ago, God chose Israel from all the other nations on earth to be His own special people for a very special purpose. Unless we have the understanding of this we cannot really grasp the purpose of God using three men with the same name to witness to His chosen people, Israel.
F
or
an explanation as to why God chose Israel as His people, it is
recommended that the reader read pages 160-166 from the MYSTERY
OF THE AGES by Mr. Herbert
W. Armstrong.
In that writing, he makes the point that though they were chosen to be God’s special people, they were not chosen for special favors, but rather chosen for a special PURPOSE preparatory to the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God.
Israel utterly failed to fulfill that God-ordained purpose! Because of their failure it is realized that, except for God’s longsuffering, mercy, and continued effort of trying to work with Israel, the ultimate salvation of mankind could have been jeopardized!
It is with this in mind there is a need to take a very close look at the state of Israel at the time of Elijah (a little later in these writings). However, to really grasp the ever-increasing magnitude and seriousness of the later problems, it is needful to lead into that time by reviewing some of the historical background of the 12 tribes of Israel after the death of Joshua, who succeeded Moses as their leader.
Before going there, it is necessary that the focus be more on the last of the three men whom God chose to go to His people with very special messages to try and save His people, Israel, and in so doing to fulfill His purpose for the salvation of Israel and for all of mankind.
The commission of the Elijah of the end-time was to preach:
1) The true identity of God and restore His holy and righteous laws, just as did the original Elijah and John the Baptizer.
2) The Good News of God’s coming Kingdom; a new age that then would be ruled by Jesus Christ upon His return to this earth. And with His return, the offer of so great a salvation for mankind that is beyond his greatest imagination.
3) The warning message to repent of the rejection of God and His holy and righteous laws, lest He bring upon Israel the curses as described in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
The Coming of Elijah
W
ith
the soon-coming, terrible time that is even now facing Israel and the
world, the great God in heaven above did, true to His promise, send
that man who did WARN
the peoples of Israel, along with the other nations, of the
soon
coming destruction to befall all of mankind on this
planet
earth for over 50 years!
Though he is sleeping he is still warning mankind via his Recorded Works from those years on our websites and a few others.
It need not come, and would not, IF – God were to be acknowledged and His laws were to be accepted along with sincere, godly repentance for breaking His 10 commandments, His statutes and judgments.
The WARNING of this end-time Elijah would be to THUNDER OUT with the intention of bringing back into the remembrance of His people Israel His holy and righteous laws (Isaiah 58:1)! Laws that were given to them in ancient times:
“Remember the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments” (Malachi 4:4).
I
t
is in this context of Malachi 4 that God further makes known He would
send this very special, prepared and trained man who would fulfill
the role of the ancient prophet, Elijah, to RESTORE
those laws; boldly proclaiming them in writing, on radio for the
first few years, and later on, television.
There were also personal meetings with the very top leaders of the nations of this world during the last few years of his life.
This man would be used by God to RESTORE ALL THINGS! He would be used to restore that which had been lost over the centuries – the laws of God – and also the true doctrinal teachings which were originally placed within His early Church by Jesus Christ through His original apostles.
These teachings were to be restored within the existing true Church of God in this end-time (Matthew 17:11; Mark 9:12).
God would use this human man to fulfill this commission, which would also include restoring relationships within a sufficient number of families, LEST Christ come and strike the earth with utter destruction (Malachi 4:4-6).
In reference to God’s Holy and Righteous Laws, Scripture says: ‘REMEMBER!’ This word is used in the context of a life and death need! This is what the Scripture makes known – a life and death need: “Lest God should strike the earth with utter destruction” (Hebrew meaning of the word, curse!) ‘Remember’ connects with forgetting – either forgetting or putting away something that is in the mind of a person! Remember also has the meaning of bringing back to mind by an effort, recollect, recall.
Though these Scriptures are directed primarily to God’s own chosen and special nation, Israel, it is also directed at the sinful state of all the nations of this world.
What is prophesied to take place in the future because of these abominable sins will be a terrifying time for all of mankind.
Such a terrible and horrifying time no one can imagine at this time! But it is indeed coming and not all that far away!
Why the Name Elijah?
In addition to these warning Scriptures, the question begs: – Why would God use the name of an ancient prophet who lived about three thousand years ago, and another man in the time of Christ, and yet again, another man in this end-time?
Why would God label the man for this end-time with the name of Elijah – the very same name as that of the ancient prophet Elijah? Why would John the Baptizer be given the same name? (It should be noted that though each of the last two would be known as Elijah, it would not be by actual name, but rather in the Spirit and Power of the ancient prophet Elijah, Luke 1:17.) Why?
It is also interesting that when we consider all the other prophets of God throughout the history of Judah and Israel we find there is no direct connection between any of them as we find with these three men; even though there was to be a great space of time between each of them. Why?
T
o
adequately answer these questions with understanding there is need
for much writing about these three men to cover this subject in
sufficient detail. They were used by God at very important intervals
in the history of Israel to try and save the
family of Jacob lest they and all of mankind be destroyed,
similar to the drowning deaths of all of mankind at
the Flood
of Noah, with the lone exception
of Noah and his
immediate family (Malachi 4:6; Genesis 7:19-23).
As to why billions of people perished by drowning in that worldwide Flood while only Noah and his family survived speaks volumes of itself! An overview of this almost total destruction can be understood by a careful study of Genesis the sixth chapter.
Noah was a preacher of righteousness—preaching repentence to a heedless godless world; the three Elijahs were sent with the powerful message of worshipping only the true God while turning away from the way that leads to destruction and death. In addition, John the Baptizer paved the way for the coming of the Messiah; and Mr. Armstrong’s mission included the preparation for the return of Jesus Christ back to this earth,
Preceding his death his parting message to the Elect people of God— prepare for the soon-coming of Jesus Christ’s return to this earth. To that end— may the great, good, and wonderful caring God and Jesus Christ bless each of His true people with growth and stability as the Apostle Peter admonished each of His people:
“. . . We according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless; . . . beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, BUT GROW in the GRACE and KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” (II Peter 3:10-18).
Your servant and friend,
Don Billingsley
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