The Greatest of all Wars
Yes it is going to happen. A stupendous war crisis. It is coming–inevitably coming as sure as night follows day, as sures as winter follows autumn. Daily reports reveal the ominous world conflicts that will alter and affect citizens and governments alike, many see no future assurance of peace. At breakneck speed supernatural forces are working through human agent to take advantage of every opportunity to distract, confuse and scatter the powers of thought and concentration.
To avert this terrible tradegy we must fast and pray, and delve deeply into God’s word. To subdue the carnal mind we must completely surrender to God with our minds consumed with pure and holy thoughts.
The crisis between Russia and Ukraine, and between Israel and Hamas, are signs of a much greater conflict that will eventually impact the entire world.
ARE WE PREPARED FOR THE WAR?
Now here are the big questions: How soon will this war break upon the world? Where will it be fought? Who will be the major antagonists? What nations will ally with which side? Will Communism, Babylon, or the UN win? And of course, the hows, the whys, and the consequences will torment many millions, if not billions, worldwide.
Casting a look backward, as we move forward, we gasp at the dreadful statistics of World Wars I and II. World War I (1914–1918) resulted in approximately 41 million casualties — 18 million dead and 23 million wounded. In World War II (1939–1945), according to the Wikipedia article on World War II casualties, the numbers were even more staggering. The conflict resulted in an estimated total of 70–85 million deaths, representing about 3% of the estimated global population of 2.3 billion in 1940. Deaths directly caused by the war (including military and civilian fatalities) are estimated at 50–56 million, with an additional 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilian deaths totaled 50–55 million, and military deaths from all causes totaled 21–25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war. More than half of the total number of casualties are accounted for by the dead of the Republic of China and of the Soviet Union. This harrowing loss of life underscores the unprecedented scale and devastation of World War II, solidifying its status as the deadliest conflict in human history.
Testimonies for the Church Vol. 9, p. 14 tells us, “The world is stirred with the spirit of war…” So what are we to anticipate in this next great war? Will there be several billion casualties? It is mind-boggling and dreadful, even to think of it.
WHAT DOES GOD’S PROPHETIC WORD FOREWARN?
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;” (Jeremiah 25:15-18)
Clearly, the Lord is first to punish His church for her sins. Why? Because we have the greatest light and the least reason to be wicked. When this war begins in the time of the deliverance of God’s people, the most englightened will suffer first.
Seventh-day Adventist, “claiming to believe the truth will not be condemned because they had not the light, but because they had great light and did not bring their hearts to the test of God’s great moral standard of righteousness. The people who claim to believe the truth must be elevated by living it out. Real Bible religion must leaven the life, refine and ennoble the character, making it more and more like the divine model. Then will the home be vocal with prayer, with thanksgiving and praise to God. Angels will minister in the home and accompany the worshiper to the house of prayer.
“Let the churches who claim to believe the truth, who are advocating the law of God, keep that law and depart from all iniquity. Let the individual members of the church resist the temptations to practice evils and indulge in sin. Let the church commence the work of purification before God by repentance, humiliation, deep heart searching, for we are in the antitypical day of atonement—solemn hour fraught with eternal results.” (2 Selected messages p. 377-378)
We are admonished to be wide awake because “we are nearing the most important crisis that has ever come upon the world.” (See Selected Messages Vol. 3 p. 414)
In other words, we are all being tested by the plummet in God’s hand; we are deciding our destiny by the choices we make.
WHERE ARE GOD’S PEOPLE DURING THIS WAR?
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” (Isaiah 26:20)
“What are the chambers in which they are to hide? They are the protection of Christ and holy angels. The people of God are not at this time all in one place. They are in different companies, and in all parts of the earth…In the time of trouble just before the coming of Christ, the righteous will be preserved through the ministration of heavenly angels; but there will be no security for the transgressor of God’s law. Angels cannot then protect those who are disregarding one of the divine precepts.
“In the closing period of earth’s history the Lord will work mightily in behalf of those who stand steadfastly for the right…. In the midst of the time of trouble—trouble such as has not been since there was a nation—His chosen ones will stand unmoved. Satan with all the hosts of evil cannot destroy the weakest of God’s saints. Angels that excel in strength will protect them, and in their behalf Jehovah will reveal Himself as a “God of gods,” able to save to the uttermost those who have put their trust in Him.” (Marathana p. 270)
Additionally, the wickedness of the world (and even of churches) gets bolder and bolder every day—terrible blasphemy and insult to the Almighty. Evolution, adultry, same sex marriages, abortions, murders, terrorisms, secret societies, witchcraft, drug abuses and violence—surely Jehovah must arise to punish the inhabitants of the earth (including the church) for their iniquity. Surely the world is ripe for the Great and Dreadful day of the Lord.
THE WORLD WILL BE PUNISHED
Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:” (Zechariah 25:17; see also verse 19-29)
These verses reveal that the nations of the world will not go unpunished for their wickedness. The tranquility and prosperity of any nation and people, therefore, depends on their stand with God, not on their military strength. (See Proverbs 14:34)
“But who reads the warnings given by the fast-fulfilling signs of the times? What impression is made upon worldlings? What change is seen in their attitude? No more than was seen in the attitude of the inhabitants of the Noachian world. Absorbed in worldly business and pleasure, the antediluvians “knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away.” Matthew 24:39. They had heaven-sent warnings, but they refused to listen. And today the world, utterly regardless of the warning voice of God, is hurrying on to eternal ruin.” (Testimonies for the Church Vol. 9, p. 14)
THE BENEFICIARY OF THE WAR?
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.” (Zechariah 14:1-2)
From the verses above we see that all nations will be involved in this war and that Jerusalem, the Holy Land will become the major center or target in this global conflict. Evidently the nations and allies will fall into two parties. Those for Jerusalem and those against Jerusalem. Significantly, the Bible foretells who will win and who will lose. The nations—the western, English speaking nations, though having superior military armament—are to lose because the Almighty so determines to humble and punish them for their arrogance and iniquities in transgressing his law.
Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 31:8-9)
With Assyria’s defeat in the holy land at God’s hand, he will atempt to gain by strategem that which he failed to accomplish by military might. in the after math of that great war around Jerusalem, the Communist-like nations, the eastern bloc will emerge as the beneficiary of that event.
Moreover, God will put in the minds of the Communist nations to give their kingdom to the scarlet colored beast. Thus a shift in superpower from the communist-like nations to Babylon the great. During this last “hour” of probationary time while the woman saddles the scarlet colored beast the will of God will be fulfilled. The 144,000 will call all God’s people out of Babylon into His purified church, the kingdom. (See Revelation 18:4; Revelation 17:12-13,17)
Again the prophecies show that after one hour (the Loud Cry period) God will allow Babylon to be destroyed and the mark of the beast system dissolved.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:16-18)
And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” (Revelation 18:24)
WILL THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS SURRENDER THEIR POWER TO THE CHURCH AND, IF SO WHY? AND WHAT OF THE U.S.A. CONSTITUTION?
And what is more, a system that will, on pain of death for nonconformity, exact a form of worship in violation of the conscience, is anything but Democracy and Christianity. Enforced religion is nothing less than an order of truckling subjects, rather than an order of voluntary discipline.
The fast falling crowned kings of the nations (symbolized by the crowned horns of the leopard-like beast) in contrast with the ascending crownless rulers of the nations (symbolized by the crownless horns of the scarlet-colored beast), show that the world is passing out of the period of royalist governments, and into the period of non-royalist governments.
A totalitarian overthrow of the democracies would endanger the continuation of Nationalistic Christianity. To withstand this storm, the Christian governments will before long seat upon the beast the predicted world-queen—Babylon the Great. Then she will say in her heart: “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” (Revelation 18:7)
CONCLUSION:
Our only safety therefore clearly lies in strict, loving obedience to God who will deliver his people as the prophets, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel tell us. When we see these things, therefore, let us not fear as the world does, but look up for our “redemption draweth nigh”. (Luke 21:28)
Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him [be] your fear, and [let] him [be] your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?” (Isaiah 8:13-15, 19-20)
Use the link below to contact us for information on other articles: