What the Holy Spirit does in the new birth is not to make a man a Christian regardless of the evidence, but on the contrary to clear away the mists from his eyes and enable him to attend to the evidence.
Gresham Machen

The Mid East In Prophecy

The Mid East In Prophecy

THE MIDDLE-EAST IN BIBLE PROPHECY

. These are amazing days in which we are living. Almost every week we read about some new development in the Middle East, but the most amazing thing is that all of these major developments are foretold in the Bible in one manner or another. Over half of the Bible is prophecy, and many of these prophecies tell us the future of Israel, Egypt and the World.
. Before you can understand these prophecies, you must know a little about the history of the Israelites, and the promises of God to them.
. About 2,000 B.C., God called Abraham and told him to leave the city of Ur, his home town, and go on a journey to the north and west to another country. He told him in Genesis 12:1-3, that he would give him this new country and from his descendants, He would possess this country. God fulfilled His promise and the Jews are the descendants of Isaac, Abrahams’s son by Sarah. Many of the Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael, Abrahams’s son by Hagar, and Egyptian. These two sons and their mothers had quarrels and their descendants are still fighting today.
. The Jews rejected Jesus. When they crucified Him, they cried out, “His blood be upon us and our children.” Forty years later, 70 A.D., Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, and the Jews were scattered into all the world. The rain began to fail and the land became a desert. God’s curse fell upon the Jewish nation because they rejected Jesus Christ. For 2,000 years they have been scattered over all the world. God’s Word tells us that in the last days, that He will gather the Jews out of all the nations, and will take away the curse from off the land and it will be fruitful again. We are now seeing this happen. God is gathering them back because their Messiah, Jesus Christ, is soon going to return to earth, and this time they will accept Him as their King. He will establish His throne in Jerusalem and rule the world for 1,000 years of peace.

ISAIAH 11:11-14

. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them or the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.”

ISRAEL

. The Jews have returned. The adversaries are being cut off. Has not God cut off Egypt, and made it hard for her to war against Israel even in our day? “They shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines to the west.” One of the main ways the Jews have returned to Palestine is by the airplanes of the nations of the west cooperating with the U.N.
. God is now dealing with Israel. Many wars and troubles have come and are going to come upon them to get them in the place where they will be willing and anxious to receive their Messiah (Jesus Christ).

EGYPT

. The prophecies in chapter 19 of Isaiah and Ezekiel 29:13-15, tell us that because Egypt persecuted the Israelites during the time of Moses, a curse would be upon their land and their people and would no longer be a great nation but a base people. Egypt, under the Pharoahs was the greatest nation in the world. Since the curse came upon it, it has become a base nation.

ISAIAH 19:22

. “And the Lord shall smite Egypt: He shall smite and heal it: and they shall return to the Lord, and He shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.”

. This prophecy is being fulfilled right today. Egypt has been smitten and God has used the armies of Israel, France and England to do it.
. The situation in the Middle East might clear up from time to time but it will always start in again until God has brought all these things to pass.

ARMAGEDDON

. The last seven years of the “age” is known as the Tribulation Period. During this Tribulation period God will pour out great judgments upon the world because of the sins and wickedness of men. At the end of this Tribulation period there is to be a battle of Armageddon. All the armies of the nations of the world will be gathered together in the valley of Armageddo just north of Jerusalem. They will be there to destroy Israel but Jesus Christ shall destroy all of these armies at His Coming and that will be the Battle of Armageddon. (Zech. 14, Isa. 13:1-18).
. Already we see the armies gathering in that vicinity. We see the stage being set for this great slaughter. It will start with little wars and grow and grow until there will be a great climax “Armageddon.”
. During this seven years Tribulation, a great King, known in Bible prophecy as the AntiChrist, will rule ten nations. He is to make a pact to protect Israel seven years. Dan. 9:27. Israel certainly wants a protector right now.

RUSSIA

. In Ezekiel 38 and 39, the Bible prophesies that Russia will come down to fight Israel in the last days and God will destroy the armies of Russia before they reach Palestine proper. Right now Russia would like to come down on Palestine and get the Arabian oil. Also, she might fight against Israel to help her friends, the Arabs. All this will come to pass soon.

ATOMIC WAR

. The Bible prophecies the terrible destruction of the last days in such a way that it describes what could be a world-wide atomic war. In Revelation 8:7-12 and 9:18, it tells us that one third of the world will be burned over, and one third of the people killed. Scientists tell us this is exactly what would happen if we had a full scale atomic war. Also read Isaiah 2:17-21. Here it describes the people of the world digging into the rock and making holes and hiding in caves for protection from the Judgment of the last days. This is exactly what the countries of the world are now doing. They are putting factories and national security installations underground.

THE RAPTURE

. Did God let His people perish in the flood of Noah’s Day? No, they were put in a place of protection before the judgment of God came upon the world. Did not God put His children, Lot and his family, in a place of protection before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire? Jesus said this coming Tribulation would be the greatest judgment of God upon the world and do you not see that God is going to take the children of God to Heaven before this last judgment is poured out on the world?

LUKE 21:36

. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
. If you want to escape the things that are coming on the world, you will have to be a born-again Christian.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:16,17

. “For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive, and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

. This advent is known as the rapture. . All of the prophecies have been fulfilled that have to be fulfilled before the rapture. Jesus is coming very soon. Are you ready? Is your heart right with God? Friend, don’t you want to be a Christian? Don’t you want to miss this great time of tribulation and judgment that is coming upon the earth? . God is love. He does not want you to suffer. He does not want you to go to Hell. He gave His only begotten Son for you. Jesus shed His blood for you so you can have your sins forgiven. The Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart tight now trying to get you to turn from sin and turn to God. All of this proves that God loves you and He does not want you to go to Hell.
. God will not tolerate sin. You cannot go to Heaven if you are living in sin. The judgment of God comes upon all men because God is a just God and God must punish sin. If you will accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, then your account is settled with God because Jesus Christ suffered for your sins at the Cross. When you repent of your sins and accept Jesus Christ into your heart, your sins will be forgiven and you will be happy because the burden of sin, shame and guilt has been lifted from your soul.

. Repent and accept Christ today. Tomorrow may be too late….

GOSPEL TRACT SOCIETY
P.O. BOX 1118
INDEPENDENCE, MO. 64051