The Pope this week mused on the beginnings of World War III. He seemed concerned that we had entered that fateful and apocalyptic time of “great tribulation”. Why might this be significant?
World War III will certainly be quite different in scope and scale from anything that has preceded it. As terrible as the previous world conflagrations have been, according to Jesus, this will be the worst of all – and thankfully never to be repeated again.
Today it seems we’re edging closer to a state of confrontation and strategy that protagonists label as “mission” or “counter-terrorism”. Can we avoid the ongoing escalation and mission-creep that will inevitably follow? Should we censor the horrific atrocities paraded via the internet and news media, and console everyone that “everything is fine”?
Mass beheading, indiscriminate executions, and widespread destruction will increasingly dominate the news headlines in the world’s cancerous “hot spots”, while in other places commerce and industry will continue as per normal yet with the mandatory security of biometric RFID tagging. Agriculture will no doubt suffer from warming weather conditions attributed to intense solar activity.
The unanticipated rise of Islam with its jihadist underpinnings will shock a morally weakened and traumatised West unable to give impetus to its former military dominance. Within two or three years, Islamic political and religious fanaticism, emanating from the Middle East and sustained by its oil wealth, will have killed 2.5 billion men, women and children! That’s roughly a third of humanity.
These are not idle musings of some doomsday peddler. Rather, these prophetic warnings cry out to us from within the pages of the Holy Bible, the veracity of which is signed by Jesus’ own words.
And unless you’re committed to Jesus, unless you’re under His care, unless your eyes are on Him, and unless His Spirit is in you, no one will be able to adequately deal with the terrors of the “last days” of this age.
Listen to Jesus some 3500 years ago:
“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favour to the young… They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.” (Deuteronomy 28:47-52 NKJV)
Listen to Jesus’ revelation 2000 years ago:
Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them… By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. (Revelation 9:16-18 NKJV)
Listen to Jesus, one more time:
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22 NKJV)
Are we able to heed the warnings? Do we know who to trust? Is there any reason for hope?
Jesus is the saviour of the world, which he accomplished by paying for our sins on the cross. All authority and power in heaven and on earth has now been given to Him, and so Jesus’ return as “King of kings” will also herald his saving work on a scale that only He can accomplish.
Until then, it seems we have a hard road to travel. Nothing is certain, except for the words of Jesus.
Written by John Klassek
