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Mat 24:4-14 NKJV And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. (5) For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. (6) And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (7) For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (8) All these are the beginning of sorrows. (9) “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. (10) And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. (11) Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (12) And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (13) But he who endures to the end shall be saved. (14) And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

In light of the happenings around the world today, I thought it appropriate to look at what the Bible says about what is happening in the Middle East. The gospel passage talks about how we who follow Christ as Christians can expect to be treated as we move forward into the future. Our nation is not specifically mentioned in scripture, however, we are made up of people descended from Noah and his sons, so we are a part of the greater scheme of Biblical prophecy. Our nation like the others in this time is becoming more and more immoral, and apostate. We claim to be Christian, but act as the rest of the world acts. More and more we see lawlessness in our cities and towns, just as we see in Europe and other countries. We also see many churches turning from the good news of salvation to the teachings of the world, there is no god, or there are myriad gods. Even the Pope, the Emperor of the Roman Empire today, has said the we and the Jews and Muslims all worship the same god.
Shamefully we do worship the prince of this world in many places and in many churches. Saddleback Church in California even had an Imam come and bring the Easter message. Other churches of mainline denominations have also walked away from the truth of God’s word to the lies of the prince of this world.
In what we refer to as the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel, the 38th and 39th Chapters there is an interesting prophecy, it is known as the Gog/Magog war. This is a war that is to be fought between Israel and many nations including the people of Magog who are ruled by one known as the Gog in the prophecy. The nations listed as being involved are: Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Along with: Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer and Togarmah. These names of course don’t mean much to those who have grown up not learning the history of the world, nor the geography of the world. So, these are the nations that are being spoken of in this passage.
Rosh, modern-day Russia; Magog – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan; Meshech – Turkey this includes Tubal Gomer Beth-Togarmah; Persia – Iran; Cush – Ethiopia and Sudan; Put – Libya. These are the children and grandchildren of the sons of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Shem: is the father of the Semitic people, this includes Jews, Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans and Phoenicians. Note that historically the people in this list have been enemies of the Jews for thousands of years.
Ham: is the father of Ethiopians, Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, as well as people of Africa and perhaps Oriental people as well.
Japheth: is the father of the Medes, Greeks, the Caucasian people of Europe and of Northern Asia.
This list is found in Genesis 10 if you want to look it up.
The reason this is important is that this war will include Russia and most of the Muslim nations of today. We find that these nations are fighting amongst themselves and that the USA has gotten itself entangled in this internecine warfare. The truth is that because of political machinations that have occurred there has been a vacuum of leadership in this part of the world and tumult has resulted. The problems have opened up things that should not have happened but have.
We Americans are now in a very bad position as far as this entire area of the world, and we have turned our backs on our ally Israel in favor of some of the more militant nations, who are also anti-Jewish and anti-American. This has now opened up the very real possibility of the Gog/Magog war becoming a reality in our lifetime.
It is entirely possible that we will find ourselves moving in the direction of being a part of the horde that forms this great army that will move against Israel, because our nation is made up of members of all these people as well as Jewish people. It behooves us as Christian people to read the Old Testament as well as the new, simply because both together, give a bigger picture of God and His activity in our world and with those who are called by His name. Make no mistake, if you say you are a Christian, you are called by His name, for Jesus Christ is God.
There is also the truth that Jesus taught about what is coming for you and I who say we are followers of Jesus Christ. Remember what Jesus said about the time when there will be all the problems to be faced:
Matthew 24:8-10 (8) All these are the beginning of sorrows. (9) “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. (10) And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.”
In an article written on September 30th the following item was reported: “It should come as no surprise that Christians will encounter opposition to their Biblical beliefs at the workplace. What might surprise them is that expressing those beliefs both at work and at home (such as social media) could cost them their job.
The latest victim of workplace firing to lose his case is Urologist Dr. Paul Church who was relieved from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston earlier this year and was just recently denied a chance to appeal his case. Church’s offense was warning of the health risks of homosexual behavior and questioned the judgment of a hospital promoting such unhealthy behavior. 

Church was told by hospital superiors that his views about homosexuality were “discrimination” and “harassment” and that the Bible verses he used to define homosexuality were equally “offensive”.”
A doctor is fired for trying to point out simple truth, and of course was not allowed to appeal the firing because he talked about something that the administration has found to be discrimination. His offense was that of trying to do his job as a doctor. There are other cases as well, and it is very much true that trying to live your Christian beliefs and lifestyle can get you fired from your job. The most famous of these is: Or you could just give money to support a cause that is not in support of Homosexuality such as Brendan Eich did when he contributed $1,000 to Proposition 8 in California. Proposition 8 was a ballot initiative to write into California law that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman.

Brendan Eich was one of the co-founders of Mozilla, which is well-known for the popular Firefox browser. Eich had been with the company since its founding but this didn’t stop the board from forcing him out of his position as CEO due to this discovery…a “crime” he committed six years prior in 2008 as a private citizen. Ironically, President Obama was also stating his support for marriage defined the same way at this point in time. 

Nowhere in the outcry against Eich was it ever stated that he tried to proselytize others into believing as he did. He was not accused of any discriminatory practices against homosexuals. In fact, Mozilla has a “same-sex partners” provisions written into their insurance policies, and Eich even stated that he would enforce these provisions, even though he didn’t believe in them. 

This however was not enough to satisfy those on their politically correct witch hunt and Mitchell Baker, the chairman of the board, stated after the dismissal that people had a right to be angry at Eich’s appointment as CEO.
Increasingly we who are Christians will be forced into positions that demand we give up our belief in God, and support those things that God has stated in the scriptures are sin. It is of course always the given free will that God has endowed us with that we must exercise. So the decision that we are to make is to choose God or the World. As Joshua put it when the people of Israel were about to enter the land of Canaan, we are to choose life or death. Heaven or Hell, that is why Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A fought so hard against the government intrusion into their beliefs. It is why a group of nuns are still fighting the government over being forced to accept birth control and abortion in their health care. The world will continue to push against the Word of God and those who have chosen to follow Christ instead of the World order.
War is coming, and it is not going to be pretty either. Once it begins there will be even greater loss of life in the Middle East than has already happened. War is also coming to our towns and cities, because of the enemies of God wanting to change our world into one that follows Satan instead of God. Each of us will have to choose which one to follow, which one will we give our complete loyalty and trust to?
Will we who call ourselves Christians continue to follow Christ? Remember that he died on the cross at Calvary for each of us, he loved us before we even knew we needed a savior.
Mat 24:32-33 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! “ As we move into the next few months and years, watch carefully, that is the lesson of the fig tree. When you see things happening you know that it is coming closer. We know that when it begins to be cooler in the daytime, it is coming on fall, when the days get shorter, Christmas and winter are coming. Well now we see what is happening in the middle east, we see that there are many little wars all over the world, there are earthquakes, and volcanoes exploding all across the globe.
For October 2nd there were 37 Earthquakes of 2.5 or greater, worldwide. For the week ending October 2nd there were 97 Earthquakes of 4.5 or greater, worldwide. Volcanic activity in the last few days is also worldwide Guatemala activity is spewing ash into the sky and up to 5 km long lava flow. Tokara Islands near Japan has an eruption with the glow from the volcanic activity seen from a neighboring island. 27 Sep Bougainville Island near Papua New Guinea Volcanic Ash plume up to 7,000 ft in the air. Mauna Loa in Hawaii shows much activity with a very large lava lake and runs from the crest down the sides, 10/2 photo. Mt Etna in Italy, with lava flow and steam on 10/2 photo. These are just a few of the volcanoes active today around the world.
The scriptures also speak of these things as well as famine and sickness of various types, this too has been seen and will be seen again. From Ebola, to Bird Flu and other infectious diseases. All of these are signs of the times, we need to be ready.
God has said that he will be with us, that the Holy Spirit will give us the ability to speak to our friends and neighbors, and that is to be our duty toward our neighbors and families, that they may be saved from the wrath to come. In that time of tribulation millions will die and go into eternity either to heaven or to hell. It is our job to try to get as many as possible to at least hear the good news of salvation, to know that God is willing that none should perish. That does not mean that if you are a nice person you will automatically enter heaven.
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” We cannot save anyone, but we can introduce them to the one who saves, who brings them into the presence of God. Many will deny, will say no, but some will accept the invitation will join us on our journey to eternal life in the presence of almighty God.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I do know that I would like to hear the words “Well done thou good and faithful servant” when I stand before God and receive the sure knowledge that I did what I could to bring others with me into the full embrace of the family of God.
What would you like to hear?