There is much questioning, speculation, and worry about exactly what the ghastly attack on Israel by Hamas means in terms of Bible prophecy. What it all means with regard to the Rapture seems the prime focus of concern.
Is this the beginning of the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39? Is the assault the beginning of a Psalm 83 war? And, added to the subject is the question of Isaiah 17:1. Will Damascus meet its total destruction as part of things about to unfold, since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others within the IDF and Israeli defense officials have vowed immense retaliation?
I certainly don’t have the answers—at not least from a 100-percent knowledgeable perspective. But we can definitely postulate a bit based upon a studied view of God’s Word that involves future fulfillment of prophecy.
We who believe in dispensational truth and accept the premillennial, pre-Trib view of things to come know that what’s happening is not coincidental. It all points to exactly where things should be if the world is at the very end of the Church Age, or Age of Grace.
We also have a number of other signals pointing to the end of this dispensation—signals that the stage is being set for fulfillment of prophecies about what will immediately precede Christ’s Second Advent:
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- The globalist minions are trying to bring into being the New World Order, which, we as pre-Trib advocates know, will eventuate in bringing Antichrist to the world stage.
- These same minions are bringing to bear, in addition to AI and surveillance instrumentalities, a new monetary system of digital control involving computer-satellite technologies that will give the man of sin the control Satan wants to exert over the peoples of earth.
- Diabolist nations of history yet future are shaping up for their end-times roles. Russia and China, for example, seem to be stepping into their destructive roles described in Ezekiel and Revelation.
- Wickedness and violence are ramping up, making cultures and societies around the globe like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot—while business goes on, particularly here in America, pretty much as usual.
- Religious amalgamation proceeds, melding—with the blessings of Pope Francis—into a common, end-times religious model of some sort that is yet to be determined.
- All the while, there is a falling away—an apostasy—amongst some of the mainstream denominations within Christendom. (I use the word “Christendom” because I’m not referring to Christians, but to those with a false façade of Christianity.)
So, while things are coming together in the Middle East—surrounding and totally involving God’s chosen nation—thrown into the milieu of developments is every other prophetic indicator for the wrap-up of history just prior to Christ’s Second Coming. All ingredients for Daniel’s seventieth week are shaping up for the time Jesus said will be the worst ever (Matthew 24:21).
All of this considered, my own thinking about developments in this ongoing devastation in Gaza is governed by Jesus’ prophetic statement that I believe is perhaps the most important involving matters leading to the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week): The Lord’s words that all things will be like they were in the days of Lot (Luke 17:28–30).
By this, I mean that when an event as devastating as the destruction of all of Israel’s enemies takes place, all semblance of “business as usual” will be out the window. The world will change spectacularly for the worse during that destruction and all that will follow, according to Daniel 9:26–27.
Seven years of hell on earth will begin to rage, and all “business as usual” will be lost in the chaos.
So, while the things we see developing now are profoundly troubling, the end is “not yet”—as Jesus put it in His Olivet Discourse. There remain wars and rumors of war leading to the final dispensational era called the “Great Tribulation” or the “time of Jacob’s trouble”—the last three and a half years of Daniel’s seventieth week.
I’m convinced that although we believers might be here to see considerable war-making, we won’t be on earth to witness the end of the things we see going on now in the land that’s destined to host the Gog-Magog war and Armageddon.
Like Lot and his daughters, we will be taken (the Greek word paralambano) by force from this sphere slated for God’s judgment. The “force” that snatches believers from the hour of God’s wrath will be our Savior’s call: “Come up here!”
Here yet again is how to hear that call:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Terry James Prophecy Line 
Psalm 83 is an imprecatory prayer which means “to invoke evil upon or a curse” it is not a prophecy. Those prophecies which are in the Psalms are usually prefaced with some mention of God being the author. What is going on in Israel right now does not involve all the people groups mentioned, on top of which not all the people groups actually exist any more.
There are many prophecy teachers who would disagree. Bill Salus wrote a book about the Psalm which you can check out. In working with biblical prophecy, obviously we have to take the original prophecy as written and interpret relative to current cultures and peoples that may be in the same locations. The book does a good job of identifying hire the peoples of the psalm are identified today.
What makes me think it’s prophetic is verse 5. Alliances and unified strategies among these groups has not occurred before that I know of and it sure does show some reflections of what’s happening today
I have always agreed with Terry James that the Rapture will happen in a “business as usual” time.
I think another aspect of that might be that when the kind of things going on now that were formerly considered hopelessly wicked become accepted as “business as usual,” then we really have paralleled the conditions that existed in the societies of Noah and Lot.
This next item might be a bit off-topic, but I thought I’d bring it up and see what others might think.
I have recently come to think the “covenant with many” will involve more than just a peace treaty with Israel and its neighbors – its overall objective will be to put in place the final world government and will also happen to include a Middle East peace accord as part of its provisions. The primary goal of the Antichrist is not for peace in the region but to have the temple rebuilt so he can usurp it 3 1/2 years into his reign and to attempt to carry out his own version of the “final solution” on Israel (which will ultimately fail when Jesus returns).
So, in my view, the “covenant with many” will involve almost every nation of the world, except holdouts like China and some of its neighbors who will comprise the “kings of the East,” and a Middle East peace accord will just be one of its provisions.
I believe we already are seeing the beginning stages of these very things already.
have always agreed with Terry James that the Rapture will happen in a “business as usual” time.
I think another aspect of that might be that when the kind of things going on now that were formerly considered hopelessly wicked become accepted as “business as usual,” then we really have paralleled the conditions that existed in the societies of Noah and Lot.
This next item might be a bit off-topic, but I thought I’d bring it up and see what others might think.
I have recently come to think the “covenant with many” will involve more than just a peace treaty with Israel and its neighbors – its overall objective will be to put in place the final world government and will also happen to include a Middle East peace accord as part of its provisions. The primary goal of the Antichrist is not for peace in the region but to have the temple rebuilt so he can usurp it 3 1/2 years into his reign and to attempt to carry out his own version of the “final solution” on Israel (which will ultimately fail when Jesus returns).
So, in my view, the “covenant with many” will involve almost every nation of the world, except holdouts like China and some of its neighbors who will comprise the “kings of the East,” and a Middle East peace accord will just be one of its provisions.
I believe we already are seeing the beginning stages of these very things already.
Ed, I agree that the covenant with many (or THE many) won’t be limited to Israel. I’ve listened to several different interpretations on this section of scripture. To bring peace to the Middle East (and perhaps even to China/Taiwan/Korea) it must be with more nations than Israel, but I can’t guess with which ones or how many there will be. It depends on how many wars (and near to igniting wars) will be underway when it is signed.
It seems highly likely that the peace agreement will come about because of an all out looming holocaust (as it is now); or if multiple wars begin, there will be a loud global outcry fostering enormous pressure to stop them before they engulf the planet. Of course we know that once that agreement is signed, any peace will be fleeting and wars, famine, pestilence, lawlessness and an unimaginable death toll will result.
I truly believe the demon-indwelled globalists and demon-indwelled leaders of the UN, WHO and our own political administration, are all together pushing for war. They MUST have it in order to bring about another global crisis; this will allow them to instigate their one-world control/government, and one-world currency. After the Rapture they will roll out a one-world religion too, because the masses will be desperate to the point of insanity for a “savior.” Then the AC will be appointed (anointed) as such.
Exactly how all of it will come to pass isn’t clear yet but we sure can see it coming together…quickly. Just like Jesus foretold, we are in the birth pangs and they aren’t going to go away before we are Raptured.
I think you are right, Robin, and that it will be the Rapture and the chaos that follows that will give the globalists the perfect opportunity to make their move. We know that there will be a global government for at least seven years headed by the “man of sin.”
The Covid crisis – which I think, in many ways was deliberately magnified way out of proportion – was merely a trial run and we can see from it just how easily freedom was stolen from most of the free world. You can bet those demon-possessed or demon-oppressed individuals pulling the globalist strings were watching and learning from this first attempt. Guaranteed that they will use the same tactics post-Rapture since they’ve already seen how well they worked. The one-world religion is already being pushed by the current Roman Catholic pope and we can expect that also to solidify at that time as well – which it will do for the Antichrist to also take over 3 1/2 years into the Tribulation.
Satan and his minions never let a crisis go to waste!
Come quickly Lord Jesus. Please.