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happen soon to the United States
and the British Commonwealth.
Many smaller nations are men–
tioned in Biblical prophecy -
Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Syria, Israel.
Again,
WHY
these prophecies?
Why should the Bible be concerned
about intemational events involving
the United States, Britain, Ger–
many, Russia, Turkey, the Arab na–
tions, Israel?
Incredible though it may sound,
if
the religions that profess to get their
beliefs from the Bible knew what
IS
the
gospel
that Jesus brought from
God, the gospel that He taught His
disciples, the gospel that the a postle
Paul preached to the Gentiles, they
would
KNOW
why the prophecies
are concemed with the world's na–
tions - and why a third of the Bible
is devoted to prophecy!
No book ever written is as
RELE–
VANT
to the traumatiC
WORLD
EVENTS
of this latter half of the 20th
century as is the Bible.
Scientists ofworld fame today say
that the only hope for human sur–
viva! on earth now is a s ingle
WORLD GOVERNMENT
witb
ONE SU–
preme military force over aU na–
tions. But in the same breath, they
tell us how impossible it is - so far
as
THEY
can see.
Jesus' M essage Was About
Government
Yet that very thing was the heart
and core of Jesus' Gospel. He an–
nounced the Kingdom of God - a
worldwide government that He, the
living Christ, is going to set up here
on earth. He said he would be cruci–
fied . He said he would be resur–
rected from the dead. He said He
wou ld then go to the very throne of
God in heaven - the throne of the
universe - but that if He went, He
would
COME AGAIN,
in all the su–
preme, supematural
POWER
and
GLORY
of the Creator God! (Write
for our free booklet titled
Just What
Do You Mean ... Kingdom ofGod?)
The prophet Daniel gave a pan–
orama of the great empires of this
2
world, starting with the empire of
the ancient Babylonians, 600 years
before Christ, a nd continuing
through the Persian Empire, the
Greco-Macedonian Empire, the Ro–
roan Empire and the Holy Roman
Empire of the Middle Ages, down to
the state of things today. Daniel
prophesied that the God of heaven
would take over all these govem–
ments and set up the world-ruling
Kingdom of God, which shall bring
in
PEACE
and last forever!
A whole third of the Bible is
prophecy because the true Gospel is
prophecy. Men have not understood
the prophecies because they haven't
known what the true Gospel is. Meo
and churches have preached Christ
- they have preached about His
PERSON-
they have said they were
His ministers - they have pleaded
with people to
ACCEPT
Christ as a
person - they have pleaded with
people to believe
on
Him - but they
have not taught people to
believe
Him
-
to believe what He taught -
to believe the message God sent to
mankind by and through Hirn. So,
of course, they could oot understand
Bible prophecy!
How Communism Will Be Stopped
But back to the question: What
líes on beyond the Vietnam war?
The Communists will keep trying.
For a while they may resort to guer–
rilla warfare, but sooner or later,
they' ll start another real war. l 'm
not saying they are ultimately going
to achieve their goal, because they
are not. The Bible shows that they
will not. But they'll keep trying until
they are stopped by a superior
power. And that's the only thing -
the only language - that Commu–
nists understand. You've got to talk
to them from a posit ion of strength.
You've got to talk to them with
power equal to or greater than
theirs.
They don' t want a war right now
with the United States, that is, a hy–
drogen bomb war, because t he
United States has the power to deal
from a superior positlon. World
War III will come, but it will be a
coming, militarized, united Europe,
not Russia , that will ult imately
plunge the world into nuclear war,
believe it or not!
Yet, God, in His merey, will inter–
vene and cut this war short - before
all humani ty is destroyed . Then
uni–
versal peace
will be established and
enforced by divine world govern–
ment - with the living Jesus Christ
at the head!
Notice Luke l :30-33 in your
Bible. An angel is quoted, saying to
Mary, the Mary who was to become
the mother of Jesus, " Fear not,
Mary: for thou hast found favour
with God. And, behold, thou shalt
conceive in thy womb, and bring
for th a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. He shall be great, and shaU be
caLled the Son of the Highest: and
the Lord God shall give unto him
the throne of bis father David [that
was the David of ancient Israel, who
ruled in Jerusalem]: and he shall
reign over the house of Jacob for
ever; and of
his
kingdom [govern–
ment] there shall be no end."
That's why Jesus was born. That's
why Jesus was resurrected from the
dead after the crucifixion - to re–
ceive a kingdom! Now turn to
John's gospel, the 18th chapter and
verse 37. Jesus was on tria) for His
life before Pilate. " Pilate therefore
said unto him (Jesus], "Art thou a
king then? Jesus answered, Thou
sayest 1 am a king. To this end was 1
born [He was born to be a king],
and for this cause carne 1 into the
world, that I should bear witness
unto the truth." But in the verse just
prior to that, verse 36, Jesus an–
swered, "My kingdom is not of this
world."
Here the word "world" is trans–
lated from the Greek word
kosmos
meaning "this present order or so–
ciety." His kingdom is not of this
present society, not of tbis time. He
wasn't going to take over the gov–
emment then. He wasn't going to
(Continued on page 48)
PLAIN TRUTH April 1973