My first book had the title Storming Toward Armageddon. It was released during the assault termed “Desert Storm” by the George H. W. Bush administration. It seemed at the time—more than thirty years ago—that all attention was directed back to the Middle East and things regarding God’s warning about humankind’s most horrific war: Armageddon.
My attention, in thinking on that military operation, was drawn to the prophet Zechariah’s vision, given him by an angel:
Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth. And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base. (Zechariah 5:5–11)
My thinking was—and continues to be—that the Desert Storm action was the beginning of the wrap-up of the Armageddon scenario. In other words, that action was turning the attention of history to the arena where humankind’s final war this side of the Millennium will be fought.
God’s Word is quite specific about where and why it will be fought. It will be fought because that is where all the wickedness of anti-God forces will be gathered by God, Himself. Here is the prophecy about that gathering:
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:1–2)
The way God deals with wickedness will be ultimately based upon how the nations of the world deal with His chosen people and nation. There is one specific element of that wickedness among this prophecy that will serve as the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back:
God will bring all of the nations’ armies to Armageddon and to their complete devastation, as His Word says, because, “they have scattered [His people and His heritage Israel] among the nations, and parted my land.”
The matter of parting God’s land is the constant effort by all involved to force Israel into accepting a “two-state solution” in order to have peace.
To get right to the heart of the matters involved, Satan’s purpose is to break God’s promise to the nation He has chosen as His heritage. Lucifer is thus doing all he can to stir the world against Israel to convince that tiny nation to fall for this devil-inspired plot. (That plot has especially ramped up after Israel’s coming into modernity as a nation in 1948, and even more specifically since Desert Storm.)
The Hamas attack of October 7 is but another part in the implementation of Satan’s plan to cause God’s promise to His chosen nation to be broken. Lucifer is totally reprobate in terms of Romans 1:28, but his insanity drives him to nonetheless carry out the plan that is infinitely greater than his own. That is, he is providentially forced to carry out the plan of the omniscient and omnipotent God of Heaven. Thus preparation is in process for the wrapping up of all of history before Christ’s Second Advent, in focusing back on the Middle East.
Wickedness has returned to that region, more violent and with greater viciousness than ever before. It is prophetically destined to become much more violent and vicious, thus convincing Israel’s leadership to accept some form of dividing God’s land for peace—the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob forever.
We are witnessing the entire world system beginning to build pressure against Israel. The United States’ presidential administration, not just the hate-filled Islamic states, is implicit in helping build this pressure.
We see this in the fact that the resolute Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to not agree to any ceasefire until the hostages are released. Yet the negotiations, directed by the US and other powers that be, have forced this strong-willed champion of Israel to acquiesce to their demands. They are thereby allowing Hamas terrorists to regroup.
Satan, his evil, supernatural genius on display, presently puts Israel’s leadership in the position of looking like heartless villains themselves if they don’t agree to the cease-fire so that two hostages per day are released. Thus as long as the cease-fire holds.
Eventually, the Israeli government will be dealt with in a similar way by Antichrist himself, as he, through satanic inspiration, maliciously negotiates a division of Israel’s land in order to achieve peace (Daniel 9:26–27). Of course, it will be a false “peace that destroys many,” as Scripture puts it.
It will be an agreement made with death and hell, Isaiah foretells (28: 16, 18).
The “covenant” (dividing of God’s land as part of that agreement) will be “disannulled,” as God has said. But the attempt to bring about the division of His land will be the trigger to Armageddon. God will deal with all nations that come against the returning King of all kings—the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:11–16)
With all raptured believers and the armies of Heaven following closely behind you on heavenly white Steeds, even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Terry James Prophecy Line 
Excellent, Terry, I believe that you are right on target.
You concluding line regarding the return of Jesus on a while horse accompanied by angels and the believers of all ages has prompted me to offer up something that occurred to me about a week ago.
Revelation 6 tells of four horses and their riders. The consensus of the first white one is that the rider is the Antichrist posing as a peacemaking messiah. The next is the red horse, suggesting warfare and the resulting bloodshed. The third black one may indicate rampant inflation where it takes a day’s wages just to get enough food, and the last pale horse represents wide scale death.
What always bothered me is that the rider of the first horse is clearly identified, while the remaining three are not. Why is this? I think it is very possible that there is but one rider, the Antichrist, who “switches mounts” as the Tribulation progresses.
He starts out appearing as a peacemaker, but then brings widespread war. The results of this warfare destroys economies on a vast scale, even as Germany’s currency crashed after World War 1. This all progresses to death across the world as a result not only of the warfare, but all the other catastrophes occurring as a result of God having to deal with all the evil unleashed by the Antichrist across the globe.
If this is so, it would explain why we do not see the riders of the three remaining horses individually identified – because it is all the same person.
That’s an interesting thought – one rider switching horses! Seems very plausible!!! Love to hear other people’s thoughts on the understanding of Scripture… Iron sharpens iron😃 Keep digging in the Word fellow saint❤️
Thanks very much for the kind words, Cheri. I’ve been reading the Bible for many, many decades and it is amazing how there are always new things to discover.
God bless.
Ed
It seems that what some prophecies allude to, are CLEARLY DELINEATED by Daniel. He is specifically constrained to “the time of the end” when people would cross continents and vast oceans at 60 to 600mph (go to and fro), and have instant access to vast topics if interest (knowledge shall increase) — as guided by Dan. 12:4&9. And when taken in conjunction with the Prophetic Psalms, as perceived by J.R. Church (“Hidden Prophecies In The Psalms”) we can arrive NOT to “the day or the hour”, but certainly to the multi-day Feast, and the YEAR of that Feast.
And although MANY have attempted to contrive FALSE Ancient “interpretations”, there is only One which accounts for each of the MODERN Prophecies, and That’s simple Modern History, which can be found for Free at: Bible [dash] Daniel [dot] com.
Now of course this presentation only focuses on HOW we’ve covered the span of world history to this point, and not the specifics of what comes next, — as the Prophecies if Kim Clement had not yet been incorporated into those concepts, however the extrapolation should be fairly simple. But suffice it to say, we should anticipate 2024 as the most challenging year since Christ.