• Military Times headline 5 days ago: US Troops in Middle East Brace for Significant Escalation of Attacks.
• Hindustani Times headline 3 days ago: US Bombs Iranian Sites in Syria After Attacks on Troops in Middle East.

Russia, China, and Iran are allied against the US. They are being called the ‘new axis of evil.’ “Wars & rumors of war” abound. What are we being drawn into?

Believers and unbelievers are asking questions about Bible prophecy. We need a big-picture view of current & coming events so we have solid, not sensational, information to share with others.

The Bible tells the story of how a holy God can save sinful human beings without compromising His love or His righteousness. The only way is for God to become a man in order to substitute Himself as the acceptable sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

• In order to add humanity to His deity, God had to be miraculously born into the human race.
• In order to be miraculously born into the human race there needed to be a people, a nation, that was chosen by God to be those He would descend from.

Those people are the physical descendants of Abraham through the twelve tribes of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob – whose name was changed to Israel.   

Jesus was born according to prophecy. The leaders of Israel rejected Him. Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and promised to come again. When He returns all Israel will be saved.

In the interim it is prophesied that Israel would be scattered throughout the world, regathered to her homeland, and be reestablished as a nation resulting in trouble for all the nations. Do you see how Israel has fulfilled these prophecies?

Israel has not repented of rejecting Jesus Christ. God has designated the coming 7yr Great Tribulation for Israel’s repentance. He calls it The Time of Jacob’s Trouble because it is primarily for God to prepare the Jews to receive Jesus. When Jesus returns at the end of the 7yrs all surviving Israelites will be saved and enter the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Leading up to His return as King, there are three predicted military campaigns:

#1 Isaiah 17:1-3 & Jeremiah 49:23-27 explain that the city of Damascus will be completely destroyed never to be inhabited again. Syrian state media say Israel hit the airports in Damascus and Aleppo for a second time since the war with Hamas began. The US has targeted Syria.

#2 “Gog” will form a coalition of nations to attack Israel. This prophecy is in Ezekiel 38&39. “Gog” seems to be a title, like Pharoah. We read, “I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army… you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely” (38:4&8).

Ezekiel lists the nations allied with Gog, The latest scholarship says they are Russia, Iran, Turkey, Libya (and possibly Algeria and Tunisia), Sudan, and the territories in the southern part of Russia that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan.

#3 Psalm 83 reveals another war between regathered Israel and her enemies. It reads (in part), “They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have consulted together with one consent; They form a confederacy against You: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot.’ ”

This is not Gog. The nations listed are not the same. The two campaigns are dissimilar in many other ways.

When will Psalm 83 & Ezekiel 38&39 go from prophecy to history? We are not told. We do know that Ezekiel 38&39 has not already occurred because it happens after the regathering of the Jews to their land (38:12). The Psalm 83 war likely occurs before Ezekiel 38&39. They occur between now and the return of Jesus to end another war, the Battle of Armageddon.

These conflicts could pre-date the Great Tribulation.

If they do, the church will witness them, and be affected by them.

Jesus promised His Church, “I… will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10). He keeps us entirely out of those 7yrs by raising deceased Church Age saints, then rapturing “we who are alive and remain.”

The return of the Lord for us is imminent. It could happen any time. Nothing needs to occur before Jesus comes for us.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!