Post by Cindy on Aug 5, 2015 12:35:08 GMT -5
Islam Rising
By Nathan Jones
Will the rise of Islam bring about increasing warfare?
Increasing Wars and Rumors of Wars
Vic Batista: Our topic this week is the Psalm 83 War. Some of the signs on the end times Jesus provided in Matthew 24:6-7 and also in Luke 21:9-10. One of those the Bible clearly tells will be wars and rumors of wars.
Nathan, I know you have some incredible statistics regarding all the wars that are going on today. Could you talk a little bit about those wars once again?
Nathan Jones: One of the ten signs that Jesus gave in Matthew 24 declared that there would be wars and rumors of wars. In other words, as we got closer and closer to the end times before Jesus' return, wars would increase both in frequency and intensity. Certainly we are experiencing that today. As a matter of fact, during the 20th Century the world experienced one of the greatest number of wars in all of history combined. The death toll was greater in that century than any other in history. About 160-187 million people were killed in all the wars of the 20th Century. That total is more than the total of all the wars that came before.
In the 21st Century, where we are 15 years into it, has seen just an incredible amount of death, especially from the Islamic wars as ISIS marches across the Middle East and with Russia invading the Ukraine and skirmishes breaking out all over the globe. Right now there are 38 wars and skirmishes happening! We are living in the middle of a tremendous time of warfare. It never seems to end, right? Our nations seems to just jump from one war to the next. There never seems to be a time of peace. The Lord had said that would be the case the closer we got to His return.
Vic Batista: Many people don't realize what's really going on around the world. Sometimes we only focus on certain parts of the news when they show you some fighting in a certain location, but when you look at it globally, the warfare is an astronomical number.
Nathan Jones: Correct. The news is very limited in its scope. I don't know what it is about international news in America, but we only focus on one of two things. You have to go and watch news from the BBC or other news outlets outside the United States via news feeds to actually see what's going on globally. There are a tremendous amount of skirmishes and wars happening all over the planet that never really make it into the news.
Vic Batista: Absolutely. The Bible talked about all these wars and rumors of wars in the last days, and of course we have seen some of those occurring even in our time. Even some end time wars could start in our time and go into the Tribulation. I'm talking about the Gog and Magog War of Ezekiel 38 & 39. Could you recap what will go on in that end times war?
Nathan Jones: Ezekiel 38 & 39 provides the most detailed description of an end time war, this being one of the nine prophetic wars that the Bible talks about. In this war it says a leader from Russia will create a coalition of Turkey, Iran, all those 'Stan nations such as Turkmenistan, Libya, Sudan, and other nations. They will join to form a coalition to destroy Israel. Russia's purpose is to plunder Israel and steal its wealth. Israel will be at a time of peace and unsuspecting of an attack according to Ezekiel 38.
When these nations come against Israel, the force will be so huge that even the mighty Israeli Defense Forces cannot possibly stand up against this coalition. As this coalition comes against Israel, that's when God steps back into the world when it comes to supernatural protection. God Himself destroys these armies with a tremendous earthquake. He sets them against each other. There is hail and there is fire. The Lord even burns the homelands of this countries that are coming against Israel.
The result of the Gog & Magog War from God stepping in will be the destruction of the power of Russia and Islam in the Middle East. Israel becomes a new super power in the world. Ezekiel 39 says that the Jewish people will know there is a God and they will all turn to Him, though not His Son Jesus Christ just yet, but definitely back to God.
The Rise and Fall of Islam
Vic Batista: We're seeing this Islamic movement towards Russia right now. It's crazy! And, right now, we are seeing Islamic mosque popping up everywhere around the world, even in my own neighborhood. I live in the Miami Garden's area in Florida and a few blocks away we see this new building being built, and it actually will be a Muslim mosque. Here in the US we are seeing mosques pop up everywhere.
Nathan Jones: Building mosques is almost being encouraged. Sadly with much of our liberal establishment, they believe in appeasement as a sound political strategy, but it is not. Remember just before World War II when Neville Chamberlain embraced Hitler and basically handed Poland and the Czech Republic over to him. Chamberlain was claiming that if Europe gave into Hitler's demands, the Germans would leave the UK alone. Hitler did not leave anybody alone! He continued to march across Europe and Russia and went on to bomb Great Britain.
Something like Chamberlain is happening today. Our politicians are trying to appease Islam, hoping they won't attack us. But, Islamic militants call the United States the Great Satan and they call Israel the Little Satan. They proudly proclaim that their goal is to destroy as commanded by the Koran all infidels, which are those who do not believe in Allah. There is no getting around their belief. It's foundational to their creed. The command is in their belief system that infidels must be destroyed or turned into second class citizens and pay a special tax.
And so, this idea of appeasement just doesn't work. Appeasing Islam is scary, just like you said. We currently live in a country that has religious freedoms, and I praise the Lord for it, but when an ideology wants to destroy us, you don't invite it in and support them in building mosques on every corner and training camps throughout the country!
Vic Batista: That is why I believe we need to educate ourselves on these type of events, because sometimes television and even our President says certain things about Islam being a peaceful religion. And yet, look at 9/11. There was nothing peaceful about that!
Nathan Jones: No, not at all. George W. Bush at that time came out saying that Islam is a religion of peace and that we don't need to deal with it directly, just terrorism. Then the Obama Administration came in and embraced Islam and gave power to known groups like CARN. They have ties to Islamic military and terrorist groups. This is scary stuff! In making these concessions, we as a nation are basically saying, "We give up! We surrender. Islam, we expect you to win, therefore we are going to step back."
When you study Bible prophecy, you realize that Islam will not win in the end. Due to the Gog & Magog invasion, it looks as though God will break the back of Islam before we get into the Tribulation time period. There will be a one-world religion in the start of the first half of the seven-year Tribulation, but Revelation reveals that Satan will overthrow that Harlot religion and he will demand all the world worship himself through the Antichrist. There cannot be Islam competing with the Antichrist religion.
We read in the Bible how the Antichrist will persecute both Christians, these new believers in Christ whom we call the Tribulation Saints, and the Jews. It doesn't say anything about him persecuting other religions. This Harlot religion of Revelation 17 is a brand new, one-world religion, because Islam is most likely destroyed before the Tribulation begins. If our politicians understood Bible prophecy, they would not be appeasing Islam, because Islam is on the losing side. It is not on the winning side.
The Moral Reversal of Society
Vic Batista: Nathan, I pray for our politicians to understand what the Bible foretells so they can maybe make better decisions.
Nathan Jones: I hope so. When a country fears God and obeys His commands and reads His Word, then law makes sense. We have a sound foundation for judicial decisions. The world then makes sense. But, when you destroy the biblical foundation, then the judges rule whatever they feel like and government runs based on popularity polls and not the Word of God. We make bad decisions when it comes to our treatment of Israel and our own people. Persecution of Christians starts coming as well. We are certainly seeing more persecution of Christians in this country. The whole nation starts unraveling. By cutting God out of our system, we are seeing our nation unravel. But, if we turn to God and the Bible, God's Word will give us an accurate view on how to handle world politics.
Vic Batista: You hit on a very good point. We must turn to God. Everything important to life begins with a relationship with Jesus Christ. All of what we are seeing happening is because people are void of a relationship with Jesus, and so therefore the decisions they are making, whether they are personal or in government, we see the disastrous effects of them.
Nathan Jones: Exactly! Unfortunately, good becomes evil and evil becomes good in society's mindset, because they don't have the Bible to turn to. Without God in our lives, without the Holy Spirit directing us, our sin nature takes over and we want to do anything that will satiate the lust of our sin nature. That's when we start calling good evil and evil good. We are seeing that very reversal in society today. When people are marching all across the country in support of thugs who kill cops, we've got a problem here in this country.
Vic Batista: The Bible says that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but our war is spiritual. Therefore, a lot of this societal angst is a ploy of the Enemy to shift our focus from what is really going on. The strategy is to keep us distracted by other things.
Satanic Anger
Vic Batista: Islam and the Gog & Magog War are going to come eventually, but in the end, we know that the Lord is going to destroy both Islam and all these coalition nations. Before their destruction, Ezekiel 38 & 39 also tells us about all those Islamic nations that surround Israel that are going to try to engulf in a sense the people of Israel?
Nathan Jones: Yes, there is a hatred of the Jews that goes beyond sound reasoning. Islam hates the Jewish people with a passion. This push for a Palestinian State by those very same people who were actually the invaders of Israel back in 1948 and then were left behind by their countries and not allowed to go back to Syria and Jordan, these are the people who are calling themselves Palestinians. In truth, the Palestinians are really Syrians.
The Palestinians are the ones who want to push for a country within Israel's borders. They know that if they can get Israel back to its pre-1967 borders that Israel would become defenseless. Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv would only be about nine miles away from the Palestinian State, an easy target where the Palestinians could shoot down Israel's planes with missiles. Israel would become defenseless. That the Palestinians real strategy behind the call for a Palestinian state.
If you remember former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was before the current President Rouhani, all the time Ahmadinejad was declaring that he should wipe Israel off the map. The whole world is focused on Iran building a nuclear weapon. The leaders of Iran, the Ayatollahs, on a daily basis say they plan on destroying Israel. And so, we know that Islam wants to destroy Israel, because just like you said, it is principalities and satanic powers behind these events.
Satan hates the Jewish people and he wants them destroyed. If he feels he can destroy them, then he can thwart Jesus' return.
Vic Batista: That is why I think it is so good to study Bible prophecy. When we do, we begin to get a glimpse into what is really going to happen and how things are going to end up. We see the world players are lining up, and the prophetic events are lining up, right before our eyes.
Cont in next post; posted with permission
www.lamblion.us/2015/07/the-coming-psalm-83-war-islam-rising.html
www.lamblion.us/2015/07/the-coming-psalm-83-war-moral-reversal.html
By Nathan Jones
Will the rise of Islam bring about increasing warfare?
Increasing Wars and Rumors of Wars
Vic Batista: Our topic this week is the Psalm 83 War. Some of the signs on the end times Jesus provided in Matthew 24:6-7 and also in Luke 21:9-10. One of those the Bible clearly tells will be wars and rumors of wars.
Nathan, I know you have some incredible statistics regarding all the wars that are going on today. Could you talk a little bit about those wars once again?
Nathan Jones: One of the ten signs that Jesus gave in Matthew 24 declared that there would be wars and rumors of wars. In other words, as we got closer and closer to the end times before Jesus' return, wars would increase both in frequency and intensity. Certainly we are experiencing that today. As a matter of fact, during the 20th Century the world experienced one of the greatest number of wars in all of history combined. The death toll was greater in that century than any other in history. About 160-187 million people were killed in all the wars of the 20th Century. That total is more than the total of all the wars that came before.
In the 21st Century, where we are 15 years into it, has seen just an incredible amount of death, especially from the Islamic wars as ISIS marches across the Middle East and with Russia invading the Ukraine and skirmishes breaking out all over the globe. Right now there are 38 wars and skirmishes happening! We are living in the middle of a tremendous time of warfare. It never seems to end, right? Our nations seems to just jump from one war to the next. There never seems to be a time of peace. The Lord had said that would be the case the closer we got to His return.
Vic Batista: Many people don't realize what's really going on around the world. Sometimes we only focus on certain parts of the news when they show you some fighting in a certain location, but when you look at it globally, the warfare is an astronomical number.
Nathan Jones: Correct. The news is very limited in its scope. I don't know what it is about international news in America, but we only focus on one of two things. You have to go and watch news from the BBC or other news outlets outside the United States via news feeds to actually see what's going on globally. There are a tremendous amount of skirmishes and wars happening all over the planet that never really make it into the news.
Vic Batista: Absolutely. The Bible talked about all these wars and rumors of wars in the last days, and of course we have seen some of those occurring even in our time. Even some end time wars could start in our time and go into the Tribulation. I'm talking about the Gog and Magog War of Ezekiel 38 & 39. Could you recap what will go on in that end times war?
Nathan Jones: Ezekiel 38 & 39 provides the most detailed description of an end time war, this being one of the nine prophetic wars that the Bible talks about. In this war it says a leader from Russia will create a coalition of Turkey, Iran, all those 'Stan nations such as Turkmenistan, Libya, Sudan, and other nations. They will join to form a coalition to destroy Israel. Russia's purpose is to plunder Israel and steal its wealth. Israel will be at a time of peace and unsuspecting of an attack according to Ezekiel 38.
When these nations come against Israel, the force will be so huge that even the mighty Israeli Defense Forces cannot possibly stand up against this coalition. As this coalition comes against Israel, that's when God steps back into the world when it comes to supernatural protection. God Himself destroys these armies with a tremendous earthquake. He sets them against each other. There is hail and there is fire. The Lord even burns the homelands of this countries that are coming against Israel.
The result of the Gog & Magog War from God stepping in will be the destruction of the power of Russia and Islam in the Middle East. Israel becomes a new super power in the world. Ezekiel 39 says that the Jewish people will know there is a God and they will all turn to Him, though not His Son Jesus Christ just yet, but definitely back to God.
The Rise and Fall of Islam
Vic Batista: We're seeing this Islamic movement towards Russia right now. It's crazy! And, right now, we are seeing Islamic mosque popping up everywhere around the world, even in my own neighborhood. I live in the Miami Garden's area in Florida and a few blocks away we see this new building being built, and it actually will be a Muslim mosque. Here in the US we are seeing mosques pop up everywhere.
Nathan Jones: Building mosques is almost being encouraged. Sadly with much of our liberal establishment, they believe in appeasement as a sound political strategy, but it is not. Remember just before World War II when Neville Chamberlain embraced Hitler and basically handed Poland and the Czech Republic over to him. Chamberlain was claiming that if Europe gave into Hitler's demands, the Germans would leave the UK alone. Hitler did not leave anybody alone! He continued to march across Europe and Russia and went on to bomb Great Britain.
Something like Chamberlain is happening today. Our politicians are trying to appease Islam, hoping they won't attack us. But, Islamic militants call the United States the Great Satan and they call Israel the Little Satan. They proudly proclaim that their goal is to destroy as commanded by the Koran all infidels, which are those who do not believe in Allah. There is no getting around their belief. It's foundational to their creed. The command is in their belief system that infidels must be destroyed or turned into second class citizens and pay a special tax.
And so, this idea of appeasement just doesn't work. Appeasing Islam is scary, just like you said. We currently live in a country that has religious freedoms, and I praise the Lord for it, but when an ideology wants to destroy us, you don't invite it in and support them in building mosques on every corner and training camps throughout the country!
Vic Batista: That is why I believe we need to educate ourselves on these type of events, because sometimes television and even our President says certain things about Islam being a peaceful religion. And yet, look at 9/11. There was nothing peaceful about that!
Nathan Jones: No, not at all. George W. Bush at that time came out saying that Islam is a religion of peace and that we don't need to deal with it directly, just terrorism. Then the Obama Administration came in and embraced Islam and gave power to known groups like CARN. They have ties to Islamic military and terrorist groups. This is scary stuff! In making these concessions, we as a nation are basically saying, "We give up! We surrender. Islam, we expect you to win, therefore we are going to step back."
When you study Bible prophecy, you realize that Islam will not win in the end. Due to the Gog & Magog invasion, it looks as though God will break the back of Islam before we get into the Tribulation time period. There will be a one-world religion in the start of the first half of the seven-year Tribulation, but Revelation reveals that Satan will overthrow that Harlot religion and he will demand all the world worship himself through the Antichrist. There cannot be Islam competing with the Antichrist religion.
We read in the Bible how the Antichrist will persecute both Christians, these new believers in Christ whom we call the Tribulation Saints, and the Jews. It doesn't say anything about him persecuting other religions. This Harlot religion of Revelation 17 is a brand new, one-world religion, because Islam is most likely destroyed before the Tribulation begins. If our politicians understood Bible prophecy, they would not be appeasing Islam, because Islam is on the losing side. It is not on the winning side.
The Moral Reversal of Society
Vic Batista: Nathan, I pray for our politicians to understand what the Bible foretells so they can maybe make better decisions.
Nathan Jones: I hope so. When a country fears God and obeys His commands and reads His Word, then law makes sense. We have a sound foundation for judicial decisions. The world then makes sense. But, when you destroy the biblical foundation, then the judges rule whatever they feel like and government runs based on popularity polls and not the Word of God. We make bad decisions when it comes to our treatment of Israel and our own people. Persecution of Christians starts coming as well. We are certainly seeing more persecution of Christians in this country. The whole nation starts unraveling. By cutting God out of our system, we are seeing our nation unravel. But, if we turn to God and the Bible, God's Word will give us an accurate view on how to handle world politics.
Vic Batista: You hit on a very good point. We must turn to God. Everything important to life begins with a relationship with Jesus Christ. All of what we are seeing happening is because people are void of a relationship with Jesus, and so therefore the decisions they are making, whether they are personal or in government, we see the disastrous effects of them.
Nathan Jones: Exactly! Unfortunately, good becomes evil and evil becomes good in society's mindset, because they don't have the Bible to turn to. Without God in our lives, without the Holy Spirit directing us, our sin nature takes over and we want to do anything that will satiate the lust of our sin nature. That's when we start calling good evil and evil good. We are seeing that very reversal in society today. When people are marching all across the country in support of thugs who kill cops, we've got a problem here in this country.
Vic Batista: The Bible says that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but our war is spiritual. Therefore, a lot of this societal angst is a ploy of the Enemy to shift our focus from what is really going on. The strategy is to keep us distracted by other things.
Satanic Anger
Vic Batista: Islam and the Gog & Magog War are going to come eventually, but in the end, we know that the Lord is going to destroy both Islam and all these coalition nations. Before their destruction, Ezekiel 38 & 39 also tells us about all those Islamic nations that surround Israel that are going to try to engulf in a sense the people of Israel?
Nathan Jones: Yes, there is a hatred of the Jews that goes beyond sound reasoning. Islam hates the Jewish people with a passion. This push for a Palestinian State by those very same people who were actually the invaders of Israel back in 1948 and then were left behind by their countries and not allowed to go back to Syria and Jordan, these are the people who are calling themselves Palestinians. In truth, the Palestinians are really Syrians.
The Palestinians are the ones who want to push for a country within Israel's borders. They know that if they can get Israel back to its pre-1967 borders that Israel would become defenseless. Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv would only be about nine miles away from the Palestinian State, an easy target where the Palestinians could shoot down Israel's planes with missiles. Israel would become defenseless. That the Palestinians real strategy behind the call for a Palestinian state.
If you remember former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was before the current President Rouhani, all the time Ahmadinejad was declaring that he should wipe Israel off the map. The whole world is focused on Iran building a nuclear weapon. The leaders of Iran, the Ayatollahs, on a daily basis say they plan on destroying Israel. And so, we know that Islam wants to destroy Israel, because just like you said, it is principalities and satanic powers behind these events.
Satan hates the Jewish people and he wants them destroyed. If he feels he can destroy them, then he can thwart Jesus' return.
Vic Batista: That is why I think it is so good to study Bible prophecy. When we do, we begin to get a glimpse into what is really going to happen and how things are going to end up. We see the world players are lining up, and the prophetic events are lining up, right before our eyes.
Cont in next post; posted with permission
www.lamblion.us/2015/07/the-coming-psalm-83-war-islam-rising.html
www.lamblion.us/2015/07/the-coming-psalm-83-war-moral-reversal.html