Basic HTML Version
PROPHECY
(Continued from page 13)
reveal that the revived Roman Em–
pire will invade the United States
and Great Britain as well!)
Enter Russia
But all will not go well for Europe.
Daniel 11:44 notes that eventually
"tidings out of the east and out of the
north shall trouble him [the king of
the north or the beast]." Threatening
news from the Soviet Union- long
covetous of the strategic oil-rich
Middle East- and the Orient will
distress the European dictator. He
will launch a blitzkrieg war against
the Communist East: "He shall go
forth with great fury to destroy, and
utterly to make away many." (The
European olfensive is also described
in Revelation 9: 1-12.)
The Communist bordes of Eurasia
will then counterattack against Eu–
rope-with an army of 200,000,000
men! (Revelation 9:16.) Full-scale
world war will erupt-a final, cli–
mactic global confiict!
The two great power blocs-Eu–
rope and the Soviet Communist com–
bine-will become engaged in a des–
perate struggle for world domination.
As the confiict escalates, all nations
of the earth will become involved.
The beast will marshal bis armies at
a place called Armageddon-the
Valley of Jezreel around Megiddo,
55
miles north of Jerusalem. They
will then converge on Jerusalem for
the final battle, where the revived
Roman Empire will make its stand
against the oncoming Eurasian
bordes.
Mankind will stand on the very
threshold of total annihilation!
Christ Returns
But God will suddenly intervene
mightily in world affairs! Jesus
Christ will return from heaven with a
vast army to put an end once and for
all to international warfare. Instead
of fighting against each other, the
world's armies will turn their attack
against
Him,
culminating in the
"battle of the great day of God Al–
mighty" (Revelation 16:12-16; Joel
3:1-2, 9-17).
38
Christ will destroy the beast and
the false prophet, and with them the
world's armies gathered at Jerusa–
lem: "And 1 saw the beast, and the
kings of the earth, and their armies,
gathered together to make war
against him [Christ] that sat on the
horse, and against his army. And the
beast was taken, and with him the
false prophet that wrought miracles
before him.... These both were cast
alive into a lake of fire ' burning with
brimstone" (Revelation 19: 19-20).
As Daniel concluded, the king of
the north "shall come to bis end, and
none shall help him" (11
:45).
With the second coming of Christ,
the "times of the Gentiles" will at
last come to an end. Christ will de–
liver Jerusalem from the Gentile
forces. All Israel will be gathered
from captivity and be brought back
to the promised land. Christ- the
conquering Messiah, the
true
Mah–
di-will then establish His govern–
ment on the earth-with Jerusalem
as world headquarters. Universal
peace and prosperity will at last be on
the way.
Recalcitrant elements- including
a remnant of Soviet forces and their
allies (Ezekiel 38 and 39)- will
make one last assault against newly
repatriated Israel, but they too will
be put down by divine intervention .
Finally, all nations will at last dwell
together in peaceand harmony.
Watchthe Middle East!
For over 40 years,
The Plain Truth
magazine has urged its readers to
watch the Middle East- the world's
most dangerous hot spot. In the De–
cember 1938 issue- fully a decade
prior to the creation of the State of
Israel-Editor Herbert W. Arm–
strong warned that "in due time, all
nations of the world will be fighting
over possession of Palestine and the
city ofJerusalem...."
Despite current hopes for a nego–
tiated settlement of the Mideast dis–
pute, Bible prophecy paints a bleak
pictureofevents to come in the months
and years just ahead. So keep your
eyes on the Arabworld, and on Jerusa–
lem. Events soon to occur there will
have far-reaching ramifications. They
will change the course ofyour life, and
the history of theworld! o
COMMANDMENTS
(Continued from page
24)
"And God said unto Jacob, Arise,
go up to Bethel, and dwell there:
and make there an altar unto God,
that appeared unto thee when thou
fieddest from the face of Esau thy
brother. Then Jacob said unto his
household, and to all that were with
him, Put away the
strange gods
that are among you, and be clean,
and change your garments: and let
us arise, and go up to Bethel; and
I
will make there an altar unto God,
who answered me in the day of my
distress, and was with me in the
way which
l
went. And they gave
unto J acob
al/ the strange gods
which were in theír hand."
They could hold tbese gods in their
hands. Notice: "And all their ear–
rings which were in their ears; and
Jacob hid them under the oak which
was by Shechem." It was a sin to
worship idols, and they had ido! gods
in their own hands.
The Third Commandment
Notice the third commandment in
Leviticus 18:3, 21, 27. "After the do–
ings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye
dwelt, shall ye not do." Here's the
instruction of God to the Israelites in
the time of Moses, but it was sin to
break that third commandment be–
fore Moses!
"And after the doings of the Iand
of Canaan, whither
1
bring you,
shall
ye not do:
neither shall ye walk in
their ordinances ... And thou shalt
not Jet any of thy seed pass through
tbe fire to Molech,
neither shalt thou
profane the name of thy God:
1
am
the Eterna
l."
There's profanity, or profaning the
name of God. Now the 27th verse:
"Foral/ these abominations
have the
men of the land
done,
which were
before
you"- before this generation
during which the law of Moses
carne.
In previous generations prior to
the law of Moses, "AII these abomi–
nations have the men of the land
done, which were before you, and the
land is defiled."
It
was sin. One of the
sins was to profane the name of God.
Therefore, profanity- taking the
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1979