(Updated on 7-29-2014)
The rise of Islam over the last few decades coupled with the Muslim Brotherhood's takeover in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and other Muslim countries should alert us that our world is changing and not for the better. And as we have seen with ISIS and their blitzkrieg across Syria and Iraq, the brutality, violence, rape, torture, and destruction of Muslims, who follow the demonic teachings of the Koran and the example of Muhammad, is only getting worse. The Lord Jesus gave us some signs of the end of the age, "Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:" (Luke 21:8-10).
The Greek word here for "commotions" is akatastasia and is defined as instability, disorder, confusion, and tumult. Therefore, seeing this unprecedented instability and upheaval in these Islamic nations in the so-called Arab Spring and the attempt by ISIS to form the Islamic Caliphate from Iraq, we can safely say that the Lord's prophecy is being fulfilled before our eyes. And these Muslim revolutions have not brought more peace and freedom in the Middle East. Instead, violence against their OWN people and the Christians and Jews that live in these Muslim countries. Their hatred toward Israel and their determination to drive ALL the Jews in Israel into the sea has increased under the influence of this Islamic "revival."
Furthermore, the civil war in Syria, Hamas firing rockets into Israel from Gaza, Hezbollah threatening Israel from southern Lebanon, and Iran feverishly working to build several nuclear weapons in order to "wipe Israel off the map" and Israel's vow to keep that from happening, only ensures that a major war between Israel and her Muslim enemies is on the horizon. In fact, I believe that this present war in Gaza was prophesied in the book of Amos as we see Israel destroying Hamas' terror tunnels, command centers, weapons caches, and even their power grid. The prophet Amos said, "Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom: But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof: And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD" (Amos 1:6-8). And this is also what may bring on the Psalm 83/Ezekiel 38-39 war where the Arab nations unite to destroy Israel.
If you that that is a far-fetched idea, the so-called "moderate" Muslim president of a Malaysian rights group called for all Muslim countries to unite and attack Israel:
1. “Perkasa wants all Muslim countries to attack Israel,” Kashmir Watch, Jul 26, 2014. Perkasa wants all Muslim countries to attack Israel
2. KUALA LUMPUR: Muslim countries all over the world must combine forces and attack the “crazy Zionists” in Israel, said Datuk Ibrahim Ali.
3. The president of Malay rights group Perkasa said every time there was an attack on Palestine, all Muslims worldwide did was pray, criticise and hold demonstrations.
4. “Those who can do something are leaders of Muslim nations, like all the kings, Presidents and Prime Ministers.
5. “The numbers are huge. Assemble all the strength and together with OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), attack the cruel Israeli Zionists,” he said in a statement.
6. He added Muslims should also send protest notes to the United States, which is the “mastermind” behind Israeli Zionists.
7. He added that Allah was testing the leaders of Muslim countries and not just the suffering Palestinians.
8. “Put together all your armies and weapons from Muslim countries and just attack the crazy Zionists and pray to Allah.”
As crazy as all this sounds, this is what God foretold would happen in the last days just prior to His second coming. This is what the Lord Jesus, the prophet Ezekiel, and the prophet Asaph in Psalms foretold would happen in the last days:
"A Song or Psalm of Asaph. Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:" (Psalm 83:1-9).
"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled" (Luke 21:20-22).
"Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal (Russia): And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters (Turkey), and all his bands: and many people with thee (Lebanon & Syria). Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:" (Ezekiel 38: 3-10).
The thing we should notice here from the passages in Ezekiel and Psalm 83 is that most of the nations listed here have one thing in common: they are Muslim nations. Then is we have one the most ominous prophecies in the Bible. It is in Revelation chapter nine: "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths" (Revelation 9:13-18).
So, this prophesied war that ends up killing one third of mankind starts after four angels are loosed in the Euphrates River. The Euphrates River just happens to start in Turkey then it flows all the way through Syria, Iraq, and then finally touches Iran for about fifty miles before it empties into the Persian Gulf. Again, the thing that these four nation have in common is that they are Islamic nations and they are at the center of the issues that will start this world war. Israel having to defend itself and Russia and China being nervous about who will come out of this mess controlling the Middle East oil supply will be the catalysts that escalates tensions to the scale prophesied in Revelation nine. This is are already being confirmed by comments from Russia and China over the present problems in Syria and Iran and their warnings to Israel and the West about getting involved.
Sadly, the Bible tells us that this coming war in the Middle East will include the first release of nuclear weapons since World War II. We know this because Isaiah 17 tells us that Damascus, Syria will be turned into a heap of ruins in one evening by the children of Israel. Since the city of Damascus, Syria has never been destroyed; the prophecy of Isaiah 17 has yet to be fulfilled. Another prophesy in Jeremiah 49 speaks about God destroying Elam in the last days. When you check search out where Elam was located, you find out that it is a region on the Persian Gulf in the country Iran and just happens to be the location of Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr I. The reactor was complete with major assistance of Russian government agency Rosatom and officially opened on September 12, 2011. And this reactor will no doubt be one of Israel's targets when they move to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. So, when you add all of this with the prophesied attack by a group of Muslim nations in Ezekiel 38 and their subsequent annihilation, there is no doubt Israel will have to use their nuclear missiles.
If you doubt what I am saying, another hint that nuclear weapons will be used is a prophecy from Zechariah about this time when Israel will be attacked by their neighbors, "And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them" (Zech. 14:12-13a). And God foretold through the prophet Joel, "And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come." (Joel 2:30-31).
The Green Horse of the Apocalypse
Hence, it is very clear from the Bible prophecies that the Arab nations would rise up against Israel and start a major war that would kill millions. The fact that the majority of the Arabs are Muslims, the Bible clearly foretold the rise of Islam. But another clear passage that confirms this is found in Revelation chapter six. "And I looked, and behold a PALE horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth" (Revelation 6:8).
The word translated "pale" here is the Greek word χλωρός: pronunciation khlo-ros' from the same as 5514; greenish, i.e. verdant, dun-colored:-- green, pale (Strong's Concordance Greek Dictionary). So, in actuality, the pale horse of Revelation 6 is green. It is not a pale/off-white as we have seen depicted in artwork or described so often in sermons. In light of that bit of insight, we have to ask: What is the significance of this particular horseman of the apocalypse being green?
In 2010, I learned that the sacred color of Islam is green. I guess I had always seen Muslims use of the color green on the news, but it never clicked. Think about it and check it out. That is why you see Hamas and Hezbollah soldiers with green bandanas. The color green is on almost all the flags of Islamic countries. In fact, Saudi Arabia's flag (the country where Mecca is located) is completely green with a sword on it. You also see many mosques across the world with green tops or green trim. When Islamic mystics called Sufis die their coffins are always shrouded in green. All of this is primarily because Muslim tradition says that Muhammad wore a green turban and a green cape. The associating the color green with Islam was confirmed by Middle East expert Daniel Pipes in the introduction of his book Militant Islam Reaches America. He stated, "The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 prompted loose talk about Islam replacing Marxism-Leninism as the West's necessary enemy. In symbolic terms, it was said that green (Islam's color) had replaced red (communism's color) in the West's rogues' gallery."
When you realize that and look back at Rev. 6:8, you see that power or authority is given to this "green horse" over 1/4 of the people of the earth. The world population is 7 billion and the number of Muslims presently in world is 1.8 billion or almost exactly 1/4 of the world. The Bible said they would "kill with the sword." The law of Muslims is Shariah law and it uses the sword to cut off the hands of thieves and also advocates beheading people for various reasons. Furthermore, it says to kill with "hunger" and presently over 90% of those living in famine live in Muslim countries. And this is NOT because they don't have the money to feed their people (because most of their countries are filthy rich from their oil and have plenty of money to feed their people), but they choose to keep most of their people poor, uneducated and let them die to control them. The term "beasts" refers to nations (see Rev. 13). This means that the religion of Islam would control "nations" and use political power and armies to kill people. And that is exactly what they are about to do by attacking Israel and forcing World War III on the entire planet. That is why "Death" is the rider on the green Islamic horse not to mention they are the religion of suicide bombers, "honor" killings, and the major murderers of Christians worldwide.
Russia, Iran, & the Ukraine
As I mentioned before, Ezekiel 38 & 39 tells of a coming attack on Israel "in the latter days" by Gog of Magog (Russia), Persia (Iran), Ethiopia (which the old boundaries of Ethiopia would include part of Sudan), and Libya all of which are Islamic countries except for Russia (though it does have a large Muslim population). Also mentioned is Gomer and Togarmah of the north. Gomer easily traced to what is now Turkey (another Muslim country) and Togarmah of north would be the part of Gomer to the north. You might think Russia...really? How do we know that Russia is Gog and Magog? Well, the Roman historian Josephus from the early second century gives us an important clue in his twenty volume classic Antiquities of the Jews. He wrote of the descendants of Noah, "After they were dispersed abroad, on account of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere; and each colony took possession of that land unto which God led them...Magog founded those that from him were named Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians."1 The Encyclopedia Britannica says a Scythian is a "member of a nomadic people originally of Iranian stock who migrated from central Asia to southern Russia in the 8th and 7th centuries BC...Scythians founded a rich, powerful empire that survived for several centuries."2 And this was confirmed by New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenburg when he was in Russia in 2004 doing research for his book The Ezekiel Option. He wrote, "So while we were in Moscow we toured the State Historical Museum. Sure enough, as we spent several hours walking the floors of the enormous redbrick building facing Red Square, we found in glass case after glass case numerous Scythian artifacts dug up by Russian archeologists and anthropologists and all on display in the Russian equivalent of our Smithsonian. Not only was the Russia's Scythian heritage real, as we learned, but the Russian government was proud to let the whole world know."3 It is interesting to note that the first area these early Russians the Magogites migrated to was the land just above the Black Sea and also to the east which are now the countries of the Ukraine and Georgia. So, we shouldn't be surprised that Putin has invaded the Ukraine...Gog wants ALL the land of Magog before he moves south against Israel.
Thus, with Russia becoming an ally with Iran for the first time in history and even helping them develop nuclear technology, we can see a very specific Bible prophecy in Ezekiel coming to pass before our very eyes. So, Russia will join this coming invasion of Israel to some degree and along with their Arab coalition, but they will not prevail in this attack on Israel. God told Ezekiel that those armies would be destroyed on the mountains of Israel so thoroughly that only a sixth part of them would be left (Ezekiel 39:2 KJV). Lebanon, Philistia (Palestinians:-Arabic filastin), Syria, and Egypt will also be problems for Israel in the last days (see Joel 3 and Is. 17). The prophets Amos, Isaiah, Joel, and Jeremiah are also clear that Edom, Ammon, and Moab (Jordan) will play a particularly violent role against Israel in the last days. This may seem strange considering the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan since 1994 and their apparent friendship with the West, but I believe that the Antichrist will come from there and the Bible tells us that he will be part of a peace treaty until he breaks it in the middle of the last seven years and goes on a Jew and Christian killing rampage. Therefore, it is very evident that the green horse of Islam is riding strong now and death and hell will follow this green evil spirit.
I believe this devastating war will cause the world to panic and they will demand a peace treaty in the Middle East between Israel and their Arab neighbors. At this time, a man will step forth and broker this peace treaty. He will be looked at as the new great political leader, the hero and the savior of mankind. This "success" will propel him to be the leader of a new world government (Rev. 13 & 17). Daniel 11:23 says "...after the league (treaty) is made with him, he will work deceitfully...and become strong with a small people."
As part of the peace treaty, Israel will have to promise to not nuke anyone else, and in return the Muslims will be required to allow the Jews to rebuild their temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem across from the Dome of the Rock (Rev. 11:1-2). This rebuilt Jewish temple is where the "great" world leader (the Antichrist) will declare himself to be God and cause the re-instituted animal sacrifices to cease (2 Thess. 2 & Daniel 9:27). After that, he will empower his false prophet to initiate the "mark of the beast" to control all financial transactions worldwide. Those who refuse this mark and will not worship this world leader (the Beast/Antichrist) or his image will be killed (see Rev. 13). That will begin a massive persecution of Christians and those who resist.
Once again, Bible prophecy proves to be very specific and very accurate and it will prove to be even more in the days ahead. This accuracy, in predicting major world events along with cultural and political trends thousands of years in advance, speaks volumes to the Divine inspiration and trustworthiness of the Bible. Neither the Koran nor the Hindu Vedas, or any other religious writings even come close to the Bible in the area of fulfilled prophecies not to mention, historical, archeological, scientific, and manuscript evidences. And this is the Bible that gives us the only way to be saved from our sins and inherit eternal life. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6). And the apostle John who wrote the book of Revelation also wrote, "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father:" (1 John 2:22-23).
Therefore, the only hope and the only possible "safe place" in this world is to humbly confess and turn from your sins and truly let the Lord Jesus cleanse you and be Lord over your life. To be saved for all eternity, we must be found in Jesus Christ, holy and walking in obedience. The days of God's final judgments and wrath are almost upon us. It is time to get serious about the Lord because eternity in heaven or hell is at stake.
Prayer for forgiveness and salvation:
“Lord Jesus I believe You are God Almighty the Creator Who came in the flesh. Jesus, You were born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, healed the sick and cast out demons, raised the dead, died on the cross bearing my sins, and rose from the dead three days later. To You Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I confess my sins and evil committed against You and others like (...be specific) even though I know that I don't deserve Your forgiveness. I choose to obey Your command to repent and change the way I live. I want to be a new person, washed in Your blood and born again by Your Holy Spirit. Please forgive me and make me new. Lord, from this point on I will become a disciple who learns, believes, and obeys Your Words in the Bible both Old and New Testaments. I give up my old life and habits and start a new one with You. Thank You for faith and the confirming witness of the Holy Spirit that I will receive. And Lord God give me strength to go through whatever trials, tests, suffering, rejection or persecution that I might face for boldly standing for the name of Jesus Christ and the Bible. Amen."
If you prayed that prayer and mean it, then find a good church that believes preaches all of God's Word, start reading and studying the Bible for yourself, talk to God every day in Jesus name, be baptized in water, and start sharing your faith in Christ Jesus with others...time is short. God bless!
References
1. Flavius Josephus, Josephus: The Complete Works, trans. William Whiston (Nashville Nelson 1998), 41 citing Antiquities, Book One chapters 5 & 6
2. See article "Scythian" Encyclopedia Britannica online edition www.britannica.com
3. Rosenburg, Joel C., Epicenter, Tyndale House Publishers Carol Stream, Illinois (c) 2006 pg. 85