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Bible prophecy and current events in January 2025: Part 1 – Israel

01 Wednesday Jan 2025

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Many Christians have a sense that recent events in the world are related to Bible prophecy, but are not sure exactly how they are related or what will happen next. Events of particular prophetic importance in 2024 include (1) Israel’s spectacular victories over its enemies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran; (2) the continuation of brutal Russian aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere; (3) the election of a newly-emboldened Donald Trump; and (4) continued technological innovations, including breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI). The present article will deal with the first of these themes, which is Israel.

The clearest proof that we are living in the end times is the regathering of the Jewish people to the land of Israel and the success of the modern state of Israel. Ezekiel 34–37 describes how there will be a physical restoration of the nation of Israel at the end of the age—a national renewal—that prepares the Jews for spiritual restoration—national acceptance of Jesus as their King. (For details, see my Interpretive Guide to the Major Prophets and this post.) Israel’s national renewal began with the Zionist movement in the nineteenth century, which itself was a surprising byproduct of the European Enlightenment, rationalism, higher criticism, and liberal theology. The Pharisees, who represented rabbinic Judaism, came to dominate Judaism after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, and all the Jewish communities of the Middle Ages practiced Orthodox (rabbinic/Pharisaical) Judaism. The power of the rabbis, who kept the Jews in spiritual darkness, finally began to be broken with the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), which led to Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Free-thinking Jews from these groups founded the Zionist movement and have shown greater openness to Christianity while still preserving their Jewish identity. The modern state of Israel officially came into existence, paradoxically, shortly after the Holocaust, when Western countries finally realized that the Jewish people needed a homeland. In spite of the entire Arab world immediately declaring war on the vulnerable new nation, God has miraculously protected and prospered the Jews.

The attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran, defy logic but have a clear spiritual explanation. Satan is trying to prevent the coming of Christ’s kingdom by killing the Jews and/or driving them out of their land—he does not want a peace deal that allows the state of Israel to continue to exist or that allows Jews to continue to live in the land of Israel. If Satan could wipe out all the Jews, God’s kingdom could never come. Jesus came to reign as King of the Jews, and His kingdom will be an Israelite kingdom (Matt 2:2; Acts 1:6). Likewise, all the Bible’s prophecies of the tribulation period reveal a focus on the Jewish people and the land of Israel at the end of history. The rapture could not happen and the tribulation period could not begin without a stable and strong Jewish state in the land of Israel and a rebuilt temple.

Israel’s dramatic victories over Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran in the face of significant regional and global opposition can only be explained by the hand of Almighty God supernaturally protecting and prospering His people. God’s plans and purposes cannot be frustrated. Ironically, the unending attacks on Israel by its enemies have given the Israelis a new resolve to do whatever it takes to eliminate their enemies, ignoring international and regional opposition, while demonstrating in full their impressive military capabilities.

As for what comes next, Ezekiel 34–37 repeatedly describes the Jews as reoccupying “the mountains of Israel,” which includes the West Bank. The October 7 attacks and the ongoing intransigence of the Palestinians has shifted Israeli public opinion from support for a Palestinian state to support for the annexation of part or all of the West Bank, possibly with the expulsion of the Palestinian population, as Israelis have realized that the Palestinians will never cease to seek their destruction. It is quite possible that Donald Trump and members of his incoming administration would support the Israeli government in these efforts. Indeed, it is likely that one of the reasons why God caused Donald Trump to win the election was because he will be much more favorable to Israel than Kamala Harris would have been.

Trump has also declared his intention to make a concerted effort to negotiate a comprehensive Middle East peace. This fits with Ezekiel 38:8, 11, which describes Israel living without defenses, without walls, and without a military at the time of the tribulation period (see also this post). Clearly some extraordinary change must take place in the Middle East to convince the Israelis that they no longer need a military and can tear down all their border walls and fences. It is possible that Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and possibly the countries of the Arabian peninsula will also disarm as part of a regional peace deal, as there is no mention of them making war during the tribulation period. (Jordan appears to have a strong military at the time of the tribulation period, but is favorable to Israel [Dan 11:41; Rev 12:6, 14].) After the Palestinian issue is definitively resolved, presumably through the annexation of the West Bank and the expulsion of the Palestinian population from Israel, and very likely through the collapse of the Iranian theocracy and/or the collapse of Islam in general, the Middle East will change its character from being a place of violence to being a place of peace, prosperity, and brotherhood. There must be some strong international agreements in place, perhaps guaranteed by the United States, that will prevent an external invasion of the Middle East prior to the midpoint of the tribulation period.

The rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem must also come about at the conclusion of the current conflict, as there clearly is such a temple in existence during the tribulation period (Dan 9:27; Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14; 2 Thess 2:4). Again, due to the intransigence of the Palestinians, Jews increasingly view the Temple Mount as an exclusively Jewish sacred space, and they (rightly) view Gentile Muslims as intruders. Israeli leaders have shown an unprecedented boldness in the past year, and this must be leading up to the time when they will at last take possession of the Temple Mount.

In light of Ezekiel’s prophecies, I expect to see Israel continue to win victories over its enemies (possibly with some temporary setbacks) until it has won complete and total victory. I expect this victory to include annexation of the West Bank and the settlement of the West Bank by Jews. Perhaps Israel will find a way to expel most of the Palestinians. This may be followed by a new wave of immigration to Israel, which will become very peaceful and prosperous. I expect Israel to tear down the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to build the Third Temple where the Dome of the Rock now stands. I expect the countries around Israel to continue making peace with Israel, and I expect the conflicts that have consumed the region for the past 75 years to finally come to an end (prior to the midpoint of the tribulation period). I expect both regional and world opinion of Israel to become much more favorable, enabling a peace that is not merely political but also social. Finally, I expect Israel to draw closer to Europe over time, as the tribulation period begins with the ratification of a treaty between the state of Israel and the antichrist, who is an Italian who leads the European Union or its successor body. This treaty apparently makes Israel a member of the EU and guarantees its protection by the antichrist during a planned seven-year period of integration.

Teaching on the relationship between Bible prophecy and current events in Israel is seldom heard from pulpits today, and is almost never heard in seminary classrooms or published in academic publications. This is because the view of Israel that is currently held by a large majority of professing Christians, including most of those who control publishing houses, seminaries, and other Christian institutions, is called “replacement theology.” Replacement theology is the anti-Semitic false doctrine that God has forever washed His hands of the Jewish people due to their rejection of Jesus, and therefore all of the eschatological blessings promised to Israel have been transferred in a “spiritual” or allegorical sense to the church. This false teaching is rooted in the allegorical hermeneutic, as the only way to explain away the Bible’s prophecies about Israel is to say that the text does not mean what it literally says. However, replacement theology also had a pragmatic aspect, as it was developed in a historical context in which it appeared from a human point of view as if the Jews would never reestablish a state in the land of Israel or accept Jesus as their Messiah; interpreters who did not believe that God would ever restore Israel attempted to find an alternate explanation of the Bible’s prophecies about Israel’s eschatological restoration. It is incredible that scholars who should know better continue to strenuously insist on this view in the context of contemporary events. Even many scholars from traditions that historically rejected replacement theology have recently tried to incorporate replacement theology into their eschatology (“progressive dispensationalism”) and/or have sought to downplay the significance of the modern state of Israel by appealing to a strong view of the doctrine of imminence.

While it is often claimed that prophecy is an unimportant side issue, many churches that hold to replacement theology have a long history of anti-Semitism, and continue to oppose Israel to the present day—in part, perhaps, because they are irked by the way in which dispensationalists point to the success of the modern state of Israel as proof of the error of replacement theology. In spite of the current popularity of replacement theology in both nominal Christianity (Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, liberal Protestantism) and among Reformed-leaning or liberal-leaning evangelicals, this view is no longer tenable not only on biblical grounds but also on practical grounds—Israel is too big to ignore, and churches which oppose God’s people cannot expect to receive God’s blessing. As events in the world continue to unfold in a way that clearly matches biblical prophecy, I expect to see a resurgence of “classic” dispensationalism, which makes a clear distinction between Israel and the church.

Returning to Ezekiel’s prophecies of Israel’s eschatological restoration, Ezekiel 38–39 describes the moment when the vast majority of the nation of Israel will finally believe in Jesus as their promised Messiah. That prophecy will be the theme of the next article in this series.

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The most significant military battles in history

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by in Bible prophecy, History

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One characteristic of some newer books on military history is that they tend to just present a narrative of what happened without a reflective analysis which shows the significance of what happened. This was a complaint I had with an otherwise excellent book that I purchased, The Encyclopedia of Warfare (Metro Books, 2013). More than 5,000 battles from the history of world civilizations are listed chronologically and described, but the reader struggles to develop a sense of which battles were the most significant ones for the course of world history. So let me try here to identify history’s most significant battles (not wars). From my biblical Christian worldview, the most significant battles will be ones that had the greatest effect on the place of true religion in the world.

There are many battles recorded in the Old Testament, and each was significant in its own way. Probably the most significant ones were Joshua’s conquest of Jericho in 1405 B.C. (Josh 2–6), followed by his defeat of a coalition of southern Canaanite kings (Josh 10) and his defeat of a coalition of northern Canaanite kings (Josh 11). It was Joshua’s providential victories in these battles that gave the Israelites possession of the land of Canaan, to which the nation of Israel has been tied ever since.

Many historians consider Marathon (490 B.C.) and Salamis (480 B.C.) to be the two most important battles in world history. In these battles, the Persian king Darius Hystaspes (in 490) and his son Xerxes (in 480) were soundly defeated by the Greeks. The presence of an unconquerable and vengeful foe on the western border of the Persian Empire made eventual conquest of Persia by the Greeks inevitable, which in turn resulted in the spread of Greek language and culture throughout the center of world civilization. It was largely the two battles of Marathon and Salamis that determined the future of Western civilization, and that indeed created the concept of a common civilization. These battles therefore largely shaped the biblical world of the New Testament and the early church—though, in truth, Marathon and Salamis were only the outworking of the predetermined plan of God, and were not determinative in themselves (see Dan 8:3-8, 20-22; 11:2-4).

There is another battle which had nearly as great an impact on the course of world history as Marathon and Salamis, but which is much less famous because the victors did not celebrate the battle in literature, theater, or art. As Caesar Augustus expanded and consolidated the Roman Empire, he recognized the threat posed to Rome by the Germanic tribes, and he sought to conquer and annex Germania (Germany) for this reason. His invasion failed disastrously: three Roman legions, along with their auxiliary forces, were annihilated by a makeshift army of Germanic tribal warriors at the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in A.D. 9. Stung by this rout, the Romans contented themselves with establishing a strong defensive perimeter along the Rhine and Danube rivers. However Augustus’ failure to subdue Germania, like the failure of Darius and Xerxes to subdue Greece, portended a further disaster for some future day. It was the invasions of such Germanic tribes as the Visigoths, the Angles, the Jutes, the Saxons, the Franks, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths which gradually weakened the Roman Empire and directly caused its fall. Germanic culture melded with Roman culture to form the culture of medieval Europe, and the influences of “barbarian” Germanic culture are still strongly felt in the Western world today.

Also deserving of mention is Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge in A.D. 312, fought under the sign of the cross. This battle, which gave Constantine control over the western Roman Empire, had a profound effect on the history of Western civilization as a whole, and on the history of the Christian church in particular. Constantine’s Edict of Milan (313) freed the church from official persecution, and the later adoption of Christianity as the state religion led to the development of a distinctly Christian civilization. Constantine is also significant for moving the center of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople, and for convening the Council of Nicaea in 325.

The rapid conquest of the Middle East by Islamic armies created a grave crisis for the church in the early Middle Ages. In what has often been called one of the most significant battles in all of history, Charles Martel (“the Hammer”) and his Frankish army decisively defeated an invading Muslim army at Tours (Poitiers) in 732, driving the Islamic forces back from the heartland of Europe. Although the Muslims retreated south of the Pyrenees Mountains, they were not finally driven out of the Iberian Peninsula until 1492, the year Columbus discovered America. Martel’s force was the last Christian line of defense in Europe against Muslim expansion, and there can be no doubt that the hand of God was with him to preserve Europe as a bastion of Christendom in the Middle Ages.

The American Revolutionary War was one of the most important wars in the history of the world, for it created what has become the most powerful and prosperous country that the world has ever seen. More than any other entity, the United States has essentially shaped the world of the end times. The battle that led Great Britain to concede defeat was the Battle of Yorktown, where Lord Cornwallis surrendered a British force of 8,000 to General Washington on October 19, 1781. However, Yorktown would not have been possible without earlier American victories—especially at Saratoga, where the surrender of 5,000 British soldiers on October 17, 1777 convinced France to enter the war on the side of the fledgling United States.

Surely World War I and its sequel, World War II, were two of the most significant wars in the history of the world. They vastly reshaped world civilization, altered the balance of power in the world, reshaped world economic structures, gave rise to totally new types of weapons, and led to the establishment of the modern state of Israel. The key battle of World War I was the First Battle of the Marne, fought on September 5-10, 1914. This battle turned back the German advance on Paris and created a stalemate on the Western Front that was to last until 1918. The most significant battle of World War II was the Battle of Britain, which was fought in the skies above England in August–September 1940. The Royal Air Force won this battle by the narrowest of margins, thereby frustrating Adolf Hitler’s ambitions to invade the British Isles and forcing him to turn his attention to targets reachable by land.

The greatest and most decisive battle in world history is still to be fought—the so-called Battle of Armageddon. This battle will occur at the end of the seven-year tribulation period, i.e., seven years after Christian believers are removed from the earth at the rapture and a treaty between Israel and the antichrist takes effect (these two events evidently occur simultaneously). The first 3½ years of the tribulation period will witness some incredibly devastating wars and battles, the likes of which will make the carnage of World War II pale by comparison. But at the midpoint of the seven years the antichrist seizes economic and religious power over the world, and he conquers much of the world to control it politically, which results in relative political stability for a few years. However, at the end of the tribulation period, the Bible describes how armies from the north and from the east will march on Israel, which is where the antichrist has moved the center of his operations (Dan 11:44-45; Rev 16:12-16). These armies evidently come to Israel with the intention of fighting the antichrist for political power; however, as the signs of Jesus’ second coming begin to appear, they decide to instead turn their firepower against the armies of heaven (Ps 2:2-3; Rev 16:14). But when Jesus actually appears they realize that they are infinitely overpowered (Rev 6:12-17), and they are killed simply by Jesus speaking the word: “Drop dead!” (Zech 12–14; Rev 14:17-20; 19:11-20). The angels proceed to gather all remaining unbelievers out of the world to be judged (Matt 13:41-42), and Jesus establishes direct political control over a new earth, which only believers may enter (Isa 65:17-25). Armageddon is the most decisive battle in the history of the world, since it will result in the complete and permanent changeover of power in the world from human government to direct divine rule (Dan 2:44-45). There will be one final battle 1,000 years later (Rev 20:7-10), but this is essentially a failed rebellion, with all the casualties on the side of the losers.

The Bible also describes a war being waged in the heavenly realms which has a much more profound effect on world events than most people realize (see Dan 10; Eph 6:10-20). This war, and the most significant battles in this war, will be the subject of a future post on this blog.

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Why isn’t Islam in Bible prophecy?

24 Friday Oct 2014

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I grew up in a strong Bible-teaching church that emphasized Bible prophecy, and I have been a student of Bible prophecy all of my life. Given the amount of time that I have spent studying biblical prophecy, I find it curious that I cannot find a reference to the Islamic religion anywhere in the Bible. Currently, and for some time in the recent past, Islam has been a focal point of the world’s attention, due to the rise of militant Islamists who are responsible for a disproportionate number of terrorist attacks, civil strife, and wars in the world. Muslims also currently dominate the Middle East, and the Middle East is the focal point of biblical prophecy. But the Bible presents Israel as living in complete physical peace with its neighbors around the time of the antichrist’s rise to power (Ezek 38:11-12)—something which is not possible so long as radical Islam is present in the region.

So what will happen to Islam? In the absence of any clear biblical statement, it is hard to say with certainty. Maybe all the radical Muslims will become moderates. But it seems to me that Islam is in the process of collapsing, or of self-destroying. Recent events have shown that committed Muslims have a tendency to radicalize, which means waging jihad (war) against the infidels. (Christians are engaged in a spiritual battle, not in a battle against “flesh and blood” [Eph 6:12]; but many Muslims see their religion as indeed a “flesh and blood” struggle for survival and expansion.) The “infidels” include not only people from other religions, but also those from rival sects of Islam. In fact, the radicals tend to fracture into different groups which declare all others to be infidels, including other radical Islamists. More Muslims (and new converts to Islam) continue to radicalize, since the radicals have been able to argue convincingly that the Islamic religion does in fact teach the philosophy they espouse.

Western leaders portray the radicals as not representative of “true Islam.” They essentially want Muslims to hold values that are very close to those held by the Western secular majority, and to make Islam little more than a cultural identity with some belief in a higher power. However, their efforts to promote so-called “moderate Islam” are failing, since the claims about Islam made by Western leaders merely represent what they want Islam to be for political reasons. Claims about “true Islam” can really only be made by presenting a detailed analysis of the theological underpinnings of the Islamic religion, and Western leaders have failed to present such theological argumentation. Modern Muslims who want to become more religious tend to radicalize, and to turn violently against the West.

I believe there is a massive collapse coming in Islam, due largely to disillusionment when the goals and aims of the Islamists are totally frustrated. If the Islamist forces are crushed on the battlefield all over the world, and if Israel wins some sort of total victory, this would create a crisis of belief in the Islamic world. The Islamists themselves are creating disillusionment among many Muslims who are repulsed by what they are doing. Perhaps the West (and China) will even launch a concerted campaign to stamp out Islam someday, possibly as part of a broader campaign against conservative monotheistic religions.

What religious system will replace Islam in the Muslim countries of the world? I pray that the church will make a great effort to reach Muslims with the gospel as they are driven to search for truth and answers.

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