Is Armageddon Inevitable? | thebereancall.org

Is Armageddon Inevitable?

March 5, 2006
Download

Tom: Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. If you’re a new listener to our program, in this first segment, which we call our feature article, we’ve been going through Dave Hunt’s latest book Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations, and we’re currently in the last chapter, and we may look at an appendix or two before we finish, Dave. But last week, you went over the Battle of Armageddon, which the Bible prophesies will indeed take place. Can you reiterate for our new listeners at what point in history it will take place, and just some background information about it?

Dave: Well, Tom, we mentioned how anti-Semitism is one of the great proofs that the Bible is God’s word, that the God of the Bible is the true God. And we mentioned some of the anti-Semitism that is rampant in the world and getting worse, actually. And ultimately, what is going to happen? Well, the United States—we need Israel as our ally in the Middle East as kind of a buffer between us and Islam. Islam intends to take over the world, and Israel stands in its way. And they are determined to wipe out Israel, just like President Ahmadinejad of Iran said, but that’s nothing new; they have been saying that. We give you probably dozens of quotes in the book of Muslim leaders who, for the last 60 years, have said, “We’re going to wipe out Israel.” Okay?

Tom: Dave, why would you say that Israel stands in its way? I mean, it’s not like Israel wants to do battle with Islam, right?

Dave: All Israel wants is to be left in peace. But if Israel were not there, and the Arab world, the Muslim world, was not preoccupied with Israel, that didn’t have this thorn in its side—which, in fact, is a fulfillment of prophecy. God said that He would make Jerusalem a burden to the entire world and a “cup of trembling,” or of terror, to all the nations round about. So this is exactly what the Bible foretold. If Israel could be wiped out, then the terrorism would really be launched against the West. They’re busy with Israel, and they struggle with that every day. What are they going to do? And of course they’re arming…all their arms are aimed at Israel—we talked about that—missiles and the nuclear bombs that will arm the missiles that Iran already has, you know. So it occupies their time and effort and the United States knows that. 

And as we mentioned—it might come as a shock, and some people may disagree—but the United States has not been the friend of Israel out of any great love for Israel. Now, there are many, say, senators, congressmen, and military leaders—generals, admirals—who know the Word of God, who love Israel. We can’t judge hearts, but we know that the State Department has been anti-Israel from the very beginning. In fact, they aided and abetted the Holocaust, and we, again, give you the documentation for that in the book. 

So ultimately, the world isn’t going to continue to bring the wrath of the Arab world down in oil boycotts, or price increases, and so forth. They think if Israel is out of the way, then everything will go smoothly. 

So Armageddon is an attempt by all the armies of the world, under the leading of Antichrist, to effect what Hitler called “the final solution to the Jewish problem.” And it is foretold in the Bible, and we looked just very briefly—I’d like to go over it a bit, at least—Ezekiel 38, I believe, is about Armageddon. 

Now, you asked the timing of this. I think that most Bible teachers, certainly those who are involved in prophecy at all, recognize that Armageddon will come at the end of the Great Tribulation, the end of Antichrist’s reign, the climax of his attempt.

Tom: Which is a seven-year period.

Dave: Right, the climax of his attempt to hold this world in his grasp, and to prevent Christ from returning, and we’ve gone over that before. The Bible has hundreds, literally hundreds of promises that Christ would preserve His people. He would intervene in the midst of Armageddon, He would rescue them and destroy Antichrist, and then He would set up His kingdom on the throne of His father David. 

Now, obviously, if Israel ceases to exist, if the Antichrist—and of course, this has been Satan’s goal from the very beginning: if Israel ceases to exist, then God is proved to be a liar. He promised they would continue forever. 

For example, Jeremiah 31, let’s look at it again, just very quickly…

Tom: Dave, while you’re looking, I mean, it’s an amazing thing that Israel has existed this long! It’s a miracle!

Dave: Right. When you go over the facts that we give in Judgment Day, the world is against Israel, has been against Israel, and the fact that they exist at all, as you said, it is amazing! It is a testimony to the truth of the Word of God. 

Here is Jeremiah:31:35: “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name….” 

God very often—almost always in the Old Testament when He’s going to declare something, a judgment or a prophesy, He identifies Himself in this way: as the God—not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the God of creation. He is the Creator, and everything belongs to Him. 

Next verse: “If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.” 

So it’s quite clear that so long as the sun is in the sky, the stars are up there, you know, and the natural order, the tides and everything work, Israel will not cease from being a nation. Now, this is not saying there will still be a handful of Jews somewhere in this world, this is about the nation Israel. And that nation, of course, had to be reborn, because there was no nation Israel for at least 1,900 years. 

So with promises like this, if Satan could destroy Israel, God is a liar. The moral ground has been pulled out from under God. He could not punish Satan for his lies if God himself is proved to be a liar. So this shows the importance of Israel, and of its survival, and ultimately its victory over the nations of the world. God has tied his integrity to Israel. Two hundred and three times he is called the God of Israel; nine times the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, okay? 

So that’s what Armageddon is about, and obviously it would come under Antichrist. It would be the ultimate accomplishment of Antichrist (Satan working through him) if he could destroy Israel. So most Bible scholars put that at the end of the Great Tribulation, the climax of Antichrist’s work, his kingdom. Jesus called it “the fullness of the times of the Gentiles.” 

In Luke:21:24, Jesus talks about the attack on Jerusalem in AD 70, and the Jews being scattered everywhere. And then another remarkable prophecy: “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” This is what Christ said. 

I can remember, Tom, I’m even a little older than you are—what, about 20 years or something like that?

Tom: Close, mm-hmm.

Dave: Okay. And I remember the great prophecy teachers and authors, and 1967 when Israel took Jerusalem. And I remember them saying, “Well, Jerusalem is no longer trodden down. This is the climax of the Gentile empire,” you know. But Moshe Dayan, you know, the general with the patch over his eye, almost immediately, acting on his own, without any permission from the Knesset or anyone, he turned Temple Mount over to King Hussein of Jordan. And in 1994, he gave it to the PLO! The PLO are in charge. 

Now, of course, Israel could move in there and wipe them out and take over, but it would arouse such anger from the UN, from the world, that Israel’s hands are pretty much tied. So, Jerusalem, in that sense, was still trodden down of the Gentiles. It had not been delivered completely. This is the most important—that 35 acres there on Temple Mount is the most important part; this is the very heart of Jerusalem. 

Furthermore, UN Resolution 181, November 29, 1947, which is called the Partition of the Land (and we’ve talked about that in the past), that’s a fulfillment of Scripture, and God is going to punish the nations for partitioning His land. But it also declared—this is UN Resolution 181—it also declared that Jerusalem would never be under the control of the Jews. It must be an international city administered by the nations of the world. 

And we could give you other evidences: Jerusalem is still trodden down of the Gentiles. I believe that will come to an end only at Armageddon, that the final attempt of the Gentiles to obliterate Israel will end in failure because Jesus will intervene. And then He will descend to the Mount of Olives, He will wipe out the armies of the Antichrist, and He will restore Israel to all of the territory that belongs to it, all the way—the Bible says in Genesis 15, God is speaking to Abraham—all the way from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates! Takes in a lot of territory. 

So that’s what Armageddon is about. Now, timing—well, that brings a problem, because it’s very clear what is going to happen at Armageddon. You can’t have that happening before the Antichrist takes over; you couldn’t have it happening kind of halfway in his reign. Armageddon has to be at the very end, and it’s at the Second Coming of Christ, that’s quite clear. Revelation 19, Christ comes with His armies. He’s just been married to His bride in heaven, and they’re…

Tom: Which is the church, for some people who don’t understand that.

Dave: Right. Yes, thank you, Tom. We don’t want anyone to think He’s got some other bride. And yet there are people who say, “Well, I don’t think the church is the bride.” Well, there’s a bride, and who else would that bride be? And she comes as part of the armies of heaven with the angels, and they come. And Antichrist goes out, it says in Revelation 19, with his armies to make war against Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? 

So that is obviously the end. Okay, now what about Ezekiel 38-39? You can’t explain it away—this is Armageddon. This is not some preliminary event, this is the grand finale. 

Let me go over it again quickly. Well, but because you can’t have Armageddon at the beginning or, you know, at any other time except at the end of the Great Tribulation, so the people are forced to say, “Oh, well, this couldn’t be Armageddon, you know, because it seems to come earlier,” or whatever. 

So they’re going to have to say, “Well, I guess this battle,” which clearly is Armageddon, “it must have come earlier.” Well, then they’re denying that Ezekiel 38-39 are Armageddon. Let’s take a quick look at those two chapters. Ezekiel:38:11: “And thou shalt say [this is Antichrist], I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars or gates.” Now, that’s interesting. That tells me that the wall (it’s really a fence that Israel is building) will come down, because it says, “They will be without walls and bars and gates.” In other words, they have been deceived by Antichrist and his promise of peace.

Tom: Right, and they’re dwelling in safety, it says.

Dave: They think they are, yes. If you went to Daniel:8:25, it says that “with peace he,” that is, Antichrist, “will deceive many,” okay? 

Now, you go on in this chapter. The next verse says—who are these people? Well, they came to the “desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land,” and so forth. Believe it or not, amazingly, Israel is prospering in spite of all the wars, in spite of the heavy burden upon them, and in spite of the terrorism. You know, now that they’re getting the fence up, tourists are coming back, because they’re stopping these suicide bombers from coming in.

Tom: Dave, this isn’t unique.

Dave: So this is a people who have been gathered out of the nations where they’ve been scattered. They’re back in their land, they’re prospering, and Israel is prospering today. That’s amazing! But Antichrist is going to come against them. 

Well, how do we know this is Armageddon? And, Tom, of course one of the major questions that people raise, and they say, “Well, now wait a minute, this couldn’t be Armageddon. If Armageddon comes at the end of the Great Tribulation, how can Israel be dwelling in safety?”

Tom: Yeah, well, we have an example. When the Israelites were in the land of Goshen in Egypt with Moses there, and the plagues were poured out upon the Egyptians, the Israelites were not affected by it.

Dave: It’s amazing! And, Tom, you’re saying something rather revolutionary, because I’ve never heard any Christian saying this. I think that Israel will be protected from these plagues that God is going to pour out upon this earth. That will infuriate the nations of the world all the more. You remember in the Middle Ages, the Black Plague, you know, the Bubonic and so forth, it didn’t hit the Israeli settlements, these ghettos where the Jews had been confined. Why? Because they were following the sanitary rules that God laid out in the Old Testament. They didn’t have open sewage running in the streets and running down into the Seine river, you know. They washed their hands, they were very careful, and so forth. And that caused the world to say, “Oh, the Jews, they don’t have these diseases; they must be the ones who are behind it.” 

And I can see the world being furious: “Look, the Jews seem to be exempt from this. They must be the ones who are bringing this upon us!”

Tom: Dave, don’t the armies of the world—doesn’t the sScripture say they’re going down there to take spoils, as well?

Dave: Yes.

Tom: Well, how can that be, unless, you know, the things that are happening in the world are not happening in Israel?

Dave: That’s another good point. So if the rest of the world has been pretty much devastated and Israel is still prospering, that verse does make some sense. 

Okay, now, what’s going to happen? Well, let’s see what God says. Okay, v. 16, God says: “And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land [other verses say, ‘all nations’].” 

All the armies of the world, they’re going to come against Israel. They’re going to be certain of victory. I mean, they’re all there, okay? “We’re going to wipe these Jews out once and for all.” 

“…and I will bring thee against my land [why?], that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog.” There are two reasons for Armageddon—number one: to punish the nations of the world for what they have done, and for God to make Himself known to this world. Number two: To punish Israel for what it has done, its rebellion. This will be the final punishment upon Israel, okay?

Tom: And that’s something people have a hard time adjusting to, that God could possibly bless Israel when they’re in rebellion.

Dave: Right, they are under his protection, although they are being disciplined by God, very severely. 

Okay, so what does God say? Wow! It is frightening; it’s powerful. He says, “My fury will come up in my face.” Wow! “In my jealousy and the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the heaven, the beast of the field,” we probably mentioned this briefly last week, “all creeping things that creep upon the earth…” This is not some preliminary event, this is the grand finale. “…they will shake at my presence,” God says. 

God himself is coming to this earth! Who is He? Well, Zechariah:12:10 says (God is speaking), “They will look on me whom they have pierced.” So God intervenes as the Man Christ Jesus, who is one with the Father, and the resurrected, glorified Lord that Israel has rejected all these years. And it says, “They will look on me and they will mourn.” They will recognize…two-thirds of all Jews on this earth will be killed, and this is Zechariah 13 tells us this.

Tom: And that a Hebrew prophet’s telling us this. It isn’t some thing that, you know, Christians, so-called, made up.

Dave: Not anti-Semitism. 

Tom: No.

Dave: No. God is declaring this is His prophecy, what is going to happen. “They are going to shake at my presence,” and God says, “The nations will know who I am, and Israel will know who I am.” 

But how do we know this is Armageddon? I don’t think you could recover from such an event as that: God coming to this earth—I mean, all the creeping things shaking, and… You know, this is the climax, but we have further evidence. Ezekiel:39:7: “So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel [this is Israel now, Israel will be redeemed]; I will not let them pollute my holy name anymore….” Well, that sounds like the end; it sounds like Israel is redeemed. 

Go to Ezekiel:39:22: “So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.” 

This is Zechariah 12, they are redeemed. 

Go down to Ezekiel:39:29: “Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.” 

That’s definitely Zechariah:12:10: “They will look upon me whom they have pierced…I will pour upon the spirit of supplication, and of repentance.” 

And Ezekiel:39:28, I love it! “Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen.” So they recognize their sin. Now they have a reason to repent, and: “I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.” 

And you would relate that to Matthew 24 where Jesus says, ‘After the tribulation, those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon won’t give its light,” and so forth. “He will send His angels with the sound of a great trumpet,” this is not the trump for the Rapture, “and he will gather his elect, Israel mine elect, from the four winds.” And they’re not caught up to meet Christ in the sky. No, they’re gathered from all over the world back to Israel. And notice what it says: “I have left none of them any more there.” That is, “where I have scattered them.” Every Jew on the face of this earth will miraculously be brought back to Israel to welcome the Messiah, and He will reign over them. 

I love the Hallelujah Chorus: “And He shall reign forever and ever and ever and ever.” 

So this is where we’re heading, Tom, and I think we need to come back in some other subsequent programs and show why we are getting very, very close to this.

Tom: Well, how about next week, Dave?

Dave: Okay, you’re the boss here. If you’re going to allow that, well, we’ll do it.

Tom: Okay, next week, that’s the program.

Program Number: 
1006a

Copyright © The Berean Call 2016. All rights Reserved.  Click here for copyright permissions.