Global Tensions in Light of Biblical Prophecy – Program 2

By: Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, Dr. Elwood McQuaid, Dr. Renald Showers; ©1999

What is the Battle of Armageddon? Why is Israel the target of so much animosity? What is God’s plan for planet earth in the future?

Contents

The Big Picture of Biblical Prophecy – Part 2: What are God’s Purposes behind Future Prophetic Events?

Ankerberg: Welcome to our program. We’re talking about “Global Tensions, in Light of Biblical Prophecy.” And we’ve got three experts, Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, Dr. Elwood McQuaid, and Dr. Renald Showers who are with us tonight.

Jimmy, let me start with you. Last week we started with giving the folks an overview of biblical prophecy and I’d like to have you quickly summarize what you said about Israel kind of being a “super sign” that the Bible is talking about in the regathering of the Jewish people and so on. What does the Bible say about that? And then lead us into this thing of this confederation of nations that are going to come out of Europe and, specifically, we want to get to the great political leader that the Bible predicts will come about. What’s he going to be like? What’s he going to do? What’s going on? Talk to that.

DeYoung: Well, when we think about the fact that the Jewish people are being gathered over the last 100 years out of 108 nations of the world back into the land that God promised to give them, that is a significant indicator that God’s Word is right on target. And then the establishment of the nation. This last April in 1998, I was at the president’s house on Independence Day and as we were standing there with all the ambassadors from around the world gathered for this special reception at the president’s house, four F-16s streaked across the sky. My heart started to pound within me as I thought about the fact that now these people gathered had formed into a nation and speaking Hebrew–I heard it in the background–which is all significant as it relates to biblical prophecy.

We thought about last week also the revived Roman Empire. I remember right after the Gulf Crisis there was a special meeting and I, as a journalist, attended it there in Jerusalem. A man from the European parliament was there and he was talking about the fact that they were forming the economic union, the European Community, and they said that Israel plays a significant role because they send so much of the food stuff into Europe–I think about 65% of what they consume comes from Israel–and in his conversation he made a statement. He said, “You know, we have so many requests from nations who want to come in and be a part of the European Union.” He said, “In fact, we have decided that we’re going to limit it to the original borders of the old Roman Empire.” Oh, man, when he said that, I checked my tape recorder to see if it was working, picked myself up off the floor, realizing what he had just said. And that’s all coming together!

But then, as I sit at my listening post in Jerusalem, very interesting to watch the nations around Israel. For example, back in 1979 Jimmy Carter pulled together Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt; and he pulled together Menachem Begin who was the prime minister of Israel at the time. They wrote together and agreed upon and then signed the Camp David Accords. In 1993 I sat as a journalist in the government press office and on a big screen television watched Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister of Israel, Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO, and President Bill Clinton step out onto the White House lawn and sign the Oslo Accords. And then, of course, I had the privilege of being in the Arabah—which is the southern end of the Jordan Valley near the Red Sea—and watch King Hussein and then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President Bill Clinton sign the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan which I have right here in my hand.

Unbelievable to watch this! And every time one of those agreements was signed, somebody would call me, knowing I was a student of prophecy: “Oh! Is that the peace agreement that the Antichrist is going to sign?” And three times I said, “No. No. No. Don’t call me anymore.” But then I finally said, “I better go back to the Word of God.” I went to chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel, verse 27, where it says, “And he [the Antichrist] shall confirm a covenant with many [the Jewish people].”

I said, “Wait a minute! It didn’t say anything about signing a peace agreement. It said he would “confirm it.” And I got to thinking. The Camp David Accord is not working. President Mubarak of Egypt has never been to Israel in the 19 or 20 years now that that agreement has been signed. I knew the Palestinian agreement was not working because in five years there have been more Jews killed by the Palestinian people than in 45 years of the history of Israel before it. And I understood that this agreement, the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, was really not being normalized. Actually, this agreement that is on the table is waiting to be confirmed. The word there is gabar in Hebrew which means “to confirm it, to strengthen it, to make it stronger.” And here it is, waiting to be confirmed.

Well, that Antichrist is going to come on the scene and he’s going to say, “Hey, I can take all those peace agreements and make them come together!” Then he’s going to tell the Jewish people, “Put your temple up. Put your temple up there on the Temple Mount.” He’s had it all in line with what’s going to happen: the temple will go up. It’s going to become his palace, his tabernacle. He’ll walk in and desecrate that temple and when he does, he will intensify persecution against the Jewish people in that last 3-1/2 years. I praise the Lord I’ve been to Petra and I know that there’s a place prepared of God—Revelation 12:6—that He’s going to house a group of Jewish people to keep them protected. But there will be many Jews—two out of every three Jews will be killed.

You know, the Jewish people went through a Holocaust back about 50 years ago. But the worst holocaust is yet to come. Only one-third of the Jews were killed at that time. Zechariah 13:8 says that in the future, two out of every three Jews will be killed. That’s the coming holocaust that will be the worst slaughter of Jewish people ever to take place in the history of this world.

Ankerberg: Dr. McQuaid, we’re painting a big picture here and we’re just taking swathes of biblical prophecy right now and I’d like you to add to what Jimmy was just saying here. Movies today, popular magazines are using the words, “The Battle of Armageddon.” They’re using it in every which way. The Bible uses those words and it refers to a specific event that’s coming up. I’d like you to define it for us, tell us the nations that are involved and what’s going to happen.

McQuaid: Well, the Scripture says in the Book of Revelation 16–this is where this comes from. It says, “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” And that’s one of the most foreboding statements in all of Scripture because it is really the consummation of this great Satan-God conflict that has been going on over the centuries and the millennia around which the nations are revolving now and moving now as we’ve been hearing on these broadcasts. And it talks of the time when this will become a staging area for the armies of the world as they gather for the initial phases of what we can call the campaign of Armageddon. This is a place in the Jezreel Valley in the heart of Israel that looks out over an expanse. John, when I used to think about this, I would think, “How could all the armies of the world gather in one plain, in one place?” But when you stand and look out across that seemingly endless expanse of the Jezreel Valley, you can see how that nations that historically have come to that place…. It has been one of the greatest battlegrounds ever in the history of humanity. People like Napoleon Bonaparte have fought there. The Egyptians have fought there. The great battles between Israel and her ancient enemies fought there in that place. And so He says that He will bring the nations of the world to gather in that place for the great bloodbath that will be Armageddon.

So it’s more than significant that the nations are gathering around Israel and Israel is becoming a cup of trembling these days.

Ankerberg: Alright. We’re going to ask Dr. Showers…we’re going to take a break and when we come back, we’ll get your answer on this: When people listen to what Jimmy just said and what Elwood just said, when you talk about Israel being gathered from the different nations of the world and becoming a nation themselves; of regaining control of the city of Jerusalem, of rebuilding their temple. You hear about this Battle of Armageddon. You hear about this confederation of nations that is going to come together in Europe. And people ask, “Why? What’s going on? What is behind God’s workings in history? Why does He say it’s going this direction?” And we want you to answer that question when we come right back. Stick with us.

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Ankerberg: Alright we’re back and we’re talking with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung and Dr. Elwood McQuaid and Dr. Renald Showers. And Rennie, you’ve taught biblical prophecy for 38 years or whatever, and the fact is, you’ve studied these Scriptures and when people hear about these events that we’ve been talking about, that God is saying these things are going to come about, they say, “Why those events? What in the world is God up to?” Would you put that in focus for us, please?

Showers: John, they all have to relate to God’s ultimate purpose for history. His ultimate purpose is to glorify Himself by demonstrating the fact that He alone is the sovereign God of this universe. When you read Genesis 1:26-28, we are told that when God created man, He gave man dominion over the entire earth. The fact that God did that tells us that the original form of government for our world was a theocracy. A theocracy is a form of government in which God’s rule is administered by a representative. It was God’s plan that Adam be His representative, administering His rule over this earthly province in behalf of God and in accord with God’s will. When you look at the last verse in Genesis 1, we’re told that after God had completed creation, He looked at everything He had made and all of it was very good. No part of His creation had gone sour on Him yet. But then there was an exalted angel who through pride rebelled against God. God changed His name to Satan. Satan entered the earthly picture according to Genesis 3 and was successful in getting Adam and Adam’s wife, Eve, to join in his rebellion against God. And so there was a fall of man away from God that took place. That caused at least two major tragic consequences for mankind and the world.

Number one—Now that God has lost His earthly representative Adam, the theocracy was lost from planet Earth. And number two—Satan thereby was able to usurp the rule of the world system away from God and according to Scripture, Satan and his forces have been dominating and controlling the world system ever since and they are doing so today. This is why Satan, for example, when he tempted Jesus could offer Jesus the rule of all the kingdoms of the world system and told Jesus the reason he had that authority was because it was handed over to him. It was handed over to him by God’s representative, Adam.

Satan wanted to do this for an ultimate purpose. Satan’s purpose for history is to overthrow God as the sovereign Lord of the universe and replace God with himself as that sovereign lord. But there can only be one ultimate Sovereign and so this meant there was going to be all out war now between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan throughout the course of world history. And that provides us with the key for understanding the purpose of history. It is for God to glorify Himself by demonstrating the fact that He alone is the sovereign God of the universe and no one can overthrow Him.

But the Scriptures make it very clear for God to do that, there are at least two major things He has to do before the history of this world comes to an end.

Number one—He must crush His enemy, Satan, and get rid of him and his kingdom rule from planet Earth altogether. And the Scriptures indicate that God will do that through a combination of the seven-year Tribulation plus the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. According to Revelation chapter 6 through 18, throughout the seven-year Tribulation God will pour out three series of judgments upon His enemy Satan’s domain here on planet Earth: seven seal judgments, seven trumpet judgments, seven bowl or vial judgments. Through those series of judgments, God will systematically attack, beginning to tear down Satan’s kingdom rule. And then, according to Revelation 19, after that seven-year period of Tribulation, Christ will come out of Heaven on the back of a white horse–symbol of a victorious conqueror. And we’re told He is coming back to wage war; to wage war against what’s left of Satan’s forces here on planet Earth. And Revelation makes it very clear, He will get rid of the Antichrist; He will destroy the rulers and the armies of all the Gentile nations of the world. In Matthew 24 He makes it very clear He will rid the earth of all unsaved people and then after His Second Coming, in Revelation 20 He has Satan bound, casts him into the abyss where he is held prisoner for a thousand years, and then Revelation 20:4-6, Jesus and His saints will reign over the earth.

That says the second thing God must do to accomplish His purpose in history. After crushing Satan, He must restore His theocracy, where once again He will have a man, an Adam, functioning as His representative, administering His rule over this entire planet for the last stage of world history. And Revelation 20 says that will be for a thousand years. And Jesus Christ is that Adam. That’s why Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:45 calls Jesus “the last Adam.” The first Adam lost the theocracy by defecting from God in Genesis 3. Jesus Christ in His glorious Second Coming returns as the last Adam to restore that theocracy and then as God’s representative to administer God’s rule for the last one thousand years of this history. And by doing those two things, God will glorify Himself by demonstrating the fact that He alone is the Sovereign God of this universe.

Israel as a nation must repent of its rebellion. Today, it’s in rebellion against God. Most of the Jews today, sad to say, even in the nation of Israel are totally secular and could care less about God and spiritual things. This is one of the reasons God will bring the Tribulation Period upon them, to break them of their stubborn rebellion and bring them to faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Israel as a nation must repent and receive Jesus Christ as its Messiah and Savior before God will crush Satan. And so to Satan’s way of thinking, “If Israel has to repent and believe in Jesus before God will crush me, if I can totally obliterate Israel from the face of the earth before it repents, then God will never crush me.” That’s what was ultimately behind the Holocaust in World War II. Adolf Hitler at 13 years of age got heavily involved in the occult and continued to do so throughout his life. When he became the chancellor of Germany in 1933, one of the castles he confiscated for his purposes in Germany he turned into an occult training center for his SS troops. The Nazis were heavily involved in the occult. PBS, the public television network here in America, ran a multi-week documentary on the heavy involvement of the Nazis in the occult. That’s why they went after so many of the Jews to annihilate them and that’s why Satan, as Elwood referred in Revelation 16, Satan is going to send demons into the world, fallen angels, toward the end of the Tribulation Period to persuade the rulers of all the Gentile nations to bring their armies against the nation of Israel. By the end of the Tribulation Period, he wants those armies to be his instruments to try and annihilate the people of Israel before they can repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.

Ankerberg: That’s why these events are going to be taking place and some of them are even going on right now. Rennie, wrap this up. As long as you’ve got us on this topic, wrap it up. For people that are listening in, in light of God’s purposes, what should people who aren’t even Christians, what should they do with this information and what should Christians do in light of this information?

Showers: John, the Bible makes it very clear. God has revealed these future events in the Bible not to satisfy our curiosity of what’s going to happen, but to change hearts and lives right now. And for unsaved people, God has given these prophecies to warn them of what is ahead for them. If they don’t believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior before the Rapture of the Church takes place, they’re going to be left on the earth after the Rapture to go through this horrible seven-year Tribulation Period and come under the dictatorial power of the Antichrist. And when Antichrist, in the middle of that Tribulation Period, claims that he is God and requires everyone to worship him as God or else he’ll put them to death, they’re going to be faced with a horrendous decision to make. And either way they go, it’s going to be a no-win situation for them. So God wants to warn unsaved people ahead of time, “You had better heed the warning of what’s going to happen in the future from My Word now” and right now, before it’s too late, turn to Jesus Christ and receive Him as your Savior from sin.

For Christians, God has revealed these future events to shake us loose from our complacency and lethargy, make us face up to reality of what’s going on in the world around us and what we’re heading for as a world and as Christians, and therefore, as Christians, we had better be asking ourselves some pointed questions: What am I doing with my life right now that will count for all eternity? And what should be the priorities in my life now as a Christian in light of these things that seem to be on the near horizon which will certainly happen because God says they will happen.

Ankerberg: Next week I hope that you’ll join us when we’re going to ask the question: “Are we closer to peace today in the Middle East or are we on the brink of total global war?” We’re going to ask our experts on stage what’s going on. I hope that you’ll join us.

DeYoung: John, that’s as easy as ABC. Admit that you’re a sinner. I had to one day when I was eleven years old. I admitted that I needed Christ. Then I believed in His death, burial and resurrection and the statement that He made, “I will save you if you will call upon me.” And that’s the third thing I had to do: Call upon Jesus Christ to come into my heart and life. You can do it. It’s as simple as A – admitting that you need Christ; B – believing that He can save you; and C – calling upon Him to do that. And once you know Him, we need to tell the rest of the world before it’s eternally too late for them.

Read Part 3