The Everlasting Hatred (34 page)

Asian nations like China, India, North Korea, and Pakistan already have nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. They are rapidly improving their technology and enlarging their arsenals. Watch for China to move toward establishing hegemony over the Asian nations such as the Koreas, Japan, India and the Southeast Asian nations. On the basis of these prophecies, I believe these nations are destined to join together as both an economic and military power bloc.

In the light of recent shifts in the world's economic power, it is easy to see why any attempt by the other spheres of power to launch a hostile takeover of the Middle East's strategic land bridge and oil reserves would be immediately countered by a Chinese-led Asian attack.

Ultimately, this sphere of power will take over all other spheres of power for a short period. This Western power is predicted more often and in greater detail than all of the others. It will be a revived form of the old Roman Empire, and its capital will again be Rome.

We can have great confidence in this prophecy's fulfillment. The first four-fifths of it have already been dramatically fulfilled in history. The prophet Daniel predicted four successive gentile empires that would gain authority over the whole world.

In chapters 2, 7, and 8, Daniel predicted the details of these empires. The first was the Babylonian Empire, the second was the Media-Persian, and the third was the Greek. Even the career of Alexander the Great and the rule of his four successors were graphically predicted two hundred years before their rise to power occurred.
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Now when you consider that Daniel wrote chapter 8 around 539 B.C., his prediction is awesome. It is important to note that the center of each succeeding empire moved further westward. The center of world power after the Roman Empire has remained in the west. The miraculous revival of the old Roman culture and people will be centered in the West, not in Mecca under Islam as some are seeking to teach today.

In 68 B.C., the fourth empire, Rome, conquered the remains of the Greek Empire. As predicted, the Roman Empire became the mightiest and longest lasting of all the others. The prophets did not forecast that the fourth empire would be conquered or utterly destroyed, but rather that it would disintegrate from
within and go into a dormant form. Then it would rise to power again shortly before the coming of the Messiah to set up God's kingdom. Daniel specifically predicts, “Out
of
this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.”
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Daniel predicts that it is “
out of
” the culture and people of the old Roman Empire that the ten nations will arise and come to power. It
does not
say the revived empire will be geographically coextensive with the old. There is only one specific part of the old that must remain the same—Rome must be the capital. The Book of Revelation predicts this with the symbol of a “woman”: “And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
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When the Apostle John predicted this, there was only one city that was reigning over the kings of the earth—Rome. Muslims would never set up a world government centered in Rome; their authority would be centered in Mecca.

Both Daniel, and then John in the Book of Revelation, predict that the revival of the Roman Empire will happen through the genius and supernatural power of a great leader. He will come out of Rome, because Daniel says he will be out of the people who destroyed Jerusalem and Israel in A.D. 70.
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John predicts that the ten nations will not receive power until this leader (which the Bible calls “the beast”) comes and pulls them together, “And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast.”
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In 1969, I said that the European Common Market would become the United States of Europe.
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Most critics said this would never happen. In fact, one cardinal in Rome branded me a
“false prophet” because of it. But today, we have what Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler, and many others could not accomplish—the European Union. As I said earlier, this is not the final form of power predicted here, but it certainly is setting the stage for it.

I believe that this Roman leader is alive somewhere in Europe right now, just waiting for his appointed time to be unveiled. He is the one who will take ten of the strongest nations in the EU and form them into his power base, from which he will gain control of the whole world. John predicts that he will use a religious system to help bring the world under his authority. This man is called by many titles in Bible prophecy, but he is best known as “The Antichrist.”

He will declare war on all those who believe in Jesus Christ. But as Revelation makes clear, he will be worshipped and followed by the entire world: “And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.”
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Apparently two events will be used to thrust this man into world prominence. First, he will receive a mortal wound from which he will be miraculously healed.
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Second, he will settle the Arab-Israeli conflict by making a covenant with Israel that guarantees their security.
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This will bring what appears to be a whole new era of peace and freedom from fear of war. Israel will even be allowed to rebuild their temple side-by-side with the Dome of the Rock mosque. The joy of freedom from fear of war is evident in the praise people give him: “And they worshiped the dragon [Satan], because he gave his authority to the beast [Antichrist]; and they worshiped the beast, saying,
‘Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him.'”
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There will be a worldwide euphoria in the pseudo-peace the Antichrist brings. This will continue for three and a half years. Then the Antichrist will enter the Holy of Holies of Israel's rebuilt temple, take his seat there, and proclaim himself god.
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This is the predicted ultimate desecration of the temple known as “the abomination that causes desolation” spoken of by Daniel and Jesus Christ.

It is at this point that the “great tribulation” breaks loose. Jesus warns that this is the sign that the great war of Armageddon is starting.
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Daniel traces the movement of the military forces in this last great conflict:

At the time of the end the king of the South [Muslim forces] will engage him [the Antichrist] in battle, and the king of the North [Russia] will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the Beautiful Land [Israel]. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon [Jordan] will be delivered from his hand. He will extend his power over many countries; Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans [North Africans] and Nubians [Black Africans] in submission. But reports from the east [China-led Asian invasion] and the north [Antichristled Western forces] will alarm him, and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate many. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain [Jerusalem]. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
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As mentioned in the last chapter, the initial attack is launched against Israel by an Iranian-led Muslim confederacy. “Him” refers to the Roman Antichrist and his partner, known as the False Prophet
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from Israel (see description of “him” in Daniel 11:36-39).

The Muslims are immediately joined by the Russians in an all-out attack on Israel. But then the Russian leader takes over and also invades Egypt and Africa. While the Russian leader is in Egypt, reports from the east, which would be the oncoming Asian army, and from the north, which from Egypt would be the European-led Western army, trouble him.

So the Russian leader retraces his steps to make a stand in Jerusalem. It is there that the Roman-led Western armies of the Antichrist annihilate both the Russian and Muslim armies.

Then the two hundred million-man army of Asia will square off against the Western forces along the length and breadth of the Middle East, with its vortex in the valley of Megiddo. It is at this point that John foresaw a horrible vision of “blood standing to the horses' bridle for a distance of 200 miles.” He indicates that the blood primarily flows from around Jerusalem. The Jordan River Rift Valley extends under the Jordan River's beginning at foot of Mt. Hermon, southward through the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, and the dried up river bed (called a Wadi) that ends at the Red Sea at Aqaba-Eilat.
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It covers a distance of about 200 miles. There are no other valleys in Israel that join with valleys from Megiddo (source of the name Armageddon) and Jerusalem. So this is the only valley that fits the prophecy from Revelation 14:20. It is here that blood will stand to the horses' bridle. It traverses the entire Eastern border of Israel.

Ezekiel predicts that this war will escalate to include the whole world: “I will send fire on Magog [Russia] and on those who live in safety in the coastlands [Continents], and they will know that I am the LORD.”
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The Hebrew word translated “coastlands”
means continents today. So apparently the fire of thermonuclear weapons will reach most of the world.

It is at this point, when man is about to destroy all life on the planet, Jesus the Messiah will return to put down all armies. He will then judge the world. He will cast off all unbelievers into judgment. The surviving believers will go into a completely renewed earth and repopulate it. They will live in peace and prosperity for a thousand years.

This question has troubled me for the fifty odd years I have studied prophecy. I have not found one reference, either explicit or inferred, that applies to the United States in the final alignment of world powers. Now since the U.S. has been the leader of the West and the World since World War II, this has an ominous meaning.

I have said for over fifty years that the United States must fall from its position as the world's superpower. And now with its current economic problems that have been geometrically accelerated by the Obama Administration's reckless spending in the face of a disastrous national debt, it is easy to see this prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes. Mr. Obama seems to be bent upon destroying America's preeminence among the world powers and reducing us to a form that will have to submit to the one-world government movement that has gained enormous power in the Western political sphere.

The power center that will lead the West is clearly predicted. It will be a Roman-led union of ten nations out of the culture and people of the old Roman Empire. So this means the United States has to decline in power. I hate to even think of this because I love my country. But I see the United States being destroyed economically before my eyes by those who are determined to destroy our Constitution and capitalist system and turn it into a form of Marxist one-worldism.

However it happens, power must shift to Europe. Prophecy demands it.

The really good news is that those who accept the free gift of pardon that Jesus gave His life to purchase will not be here in the fateful final seven years of catastrophe.

I was a young non-religious tugboat captain in New Orleans. I was satisfied with life and thought I had it all. I had a bachelor's pad in the French Quarter and the money to party non-stop. Then, after frantically experiencing all that I thought was fun, I found myself asking, “Is this all there is?” “What do you do for an encore?” I started searching and finally opened a Gideon's New Testament someone had given me years before. I had never read it, but I thought it was good luck to keep it with me—kind of like a rabbit's foot.

I read through the Gospels and came to the third chapter of the Gospel of John. Suddenly it became clear to me in this chapter that I had been born wrong the first time and I needed to be born again spiritually. I saw that the only requirement was to admit I could never measure up to God's standards. Then I simply asked God to forgive me on the basis that Jesus died for my sins and purchased a pardon for me. I received that pardon.

I didn't suddenly hear organ music or church bells ringing, but I sensed a peace come over me. I new God had touched me. That was the turning point in my whole life. Though I have had my struggles and failures, God has never let go of me. He has motivated me to learn His Word and fellowship with other believers. I wouldn't trade the life I have had since that day for all the world has to offer.

The wonderful thing is, God promises that all who believe in Him now are not appointed to the wrath that is about to come upon the world. I can't offer a global solution for the world, but I
do offer you a personal solution. Right now, wherever you are, just bow your head and receive the gift of pardon Jesus purchased for you by dying in your place. Pray and ask Him to come into your life and make you what He wants you to be. If you just prayed that prayer, Jesus, who can't lie, has come into you and forgiven you. Continue with Him and seek out other true Christians for fellowship.