(Ecclesiastes 1:9) “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
History has a way of repeating itself!
Historically both WW1 and WW2 began with a regional conflict that drew other nations into its fiery cauldron resulting in two global wars.
World War I started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian nationalist, triggering a complex web of military alliances and rivalries in Europe. This war resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million deaths (both military and civilian), with total casualties, including wounded, reaching around 40 million. Approximately 9 to 11 million military personnel died, while civilian deaths, driven by famine, disease, and genocide, ranged from 6 to 13 million.
World War II started with Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, using a new “lightning war” (Blitzkrieg) tactic; prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany two days later, officially beginning the global conflict.
World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, with total deaths estimated between 70 and 85 million people. This included approximately 50–55 million civilian deaths, many from genocide, famine, and disease, and 21–25 million military personnel. The Soviet Union and China suffered the highest total casualties, at roughly 24 million and 20 million respectively.
Since the end of WW2 we have seen many regional conflicts with the potential of kick stating a third world war. However in October 16–28, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis saw a 13-day standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, initiated by the secret Soviet installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba. It was the closest the world came to nuclear war during the Cold War.
Back in 1945 when the Allies dropped two Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan the whole world realised that nations had entered into the nuclear age with weapons that could wipe out whole cities and geographical regions with just one detonation of a nuclear device.
Today we have nuclear weapons, missiles, drones and naval vessels and jets powered by advanced technology that can be used to wipe out whole cities with one blow. Boots on the ground are secondary to weapons controlled by advanced technology in the air and on the seas.
Today we see America on the brink of a “face-off” with Iran with weapons of mass destruction on both sides. Undoubtedly if it erupted it would affect the whole of the Middle-East Region. It would not just a war between Iran and America but in reality a war that the west is facing with Islam in the Middle-East.
At present in 2026 the United States has a significant naval presence in the Arabian Sea. The United States maintains approximately 12 operational vessels in the broader Middle-Eastern region, including the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. A key factor in this potential fiery cauldron is The Strait of Hormuz controlled by Iran. Approximately 20 to 21 million barrels of oil pass through the Strait of Hormuz every day. This volume represents about 20% to 25% of the world’s daily oil consumption and roughly one-third of all seaborne traded oil.
As Iran continues to threaten a missile barrage on US bases in the Middle-East, upon US Aircraft carriers, and upon Israel, and refusing to give up on their missile programme President Trump it would seem is on the verge of launching an all- out attack on Iran. If this happens it may well set the stage for WW3.
Currently talks are being held between the United States with Iran. So far Iran is stalling for time but not agreeing to curtail their Uranium enrichment programme to develop a nuclear device, refusing to cease upgrading their missile systems, and to stop funding their proxy terror groups.
It is interesting to read in Revelation Chapter 9:13-19 when the sixth angel blows his trumpet it describes a global war in which a third of the human race will be killed. With the nuclear arsenal that exists today this is a stark reality. This war described by the apostle John sees 200 million mounted troops on the warpath.
How does a first century man sees this terrible future event in the last days and describe what he sees? How would a first century man describe mobile missile launchers, armoured vehicles, tanks and even nuclear exchanges?
When you look at the description of these mounted troops it cannot be describing literal horses. Their fiery red, dark, blue and yellow breastplates may well describe metal. Their heads, resembling the heads of lions, were spewing out of their mouths the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulphur, depicting all the effects of modern day warfare that the text tells us kills a third of the human race.
“The power of the horses we are told was in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.” Possibly this may well describe mounted armoured vehicles with very powerful rocket launchers and machine guns mounted on these armoured vehicles.
As we continue to read on in the text it is a war that God is waging against a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world hell-bent on living in rebellion and defiance in God’s face. People refuse to repent of their own self aggrandising enterprises, their worship of demons, which is idolatry. Neither do they repent of their murders, their occult practices, their sexual immorality and perversion including sodomy or their thefts (Vss. 20-21).
When the seventh angel blows his trumpet it announces the Second Coming of the Messiah to end all opposition and to establish His Millennial Messianic reign on earth. This is the last trumpet!
As we read; “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our LORD and of His Messiah, and He will reign for ever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, LORD God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small— and for destroying those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:15-18).
Dear brothers and sisters in this life we cannot avoid tribulation in this world and the Messiah our Lord Jesus said that the unsaved world would treat us in the same way it did Him (John 15:18-21), but He also said “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33). As the Apostle John writes; “Greater is He in you than he that is in the world (Satan)” (1 John 4:4).
Even though as disciples of the Lord Jesus we are destined for tribulation (1 Thessalonians 3:3-4), we are not destined for wrath. Our Triune God who has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, God’s Son, whom He raised from the dead and the one who rescues us from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9).
As Rabbi the Apostle Paul also writes; “Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9).
All, who by faith, are sheltering under the atoning, cleansing and sanctifying power of the Messiah’s blood will never experience God’s wrath, why?, because at the cross His wrath was poured out upon His one and only eternal Begotten Son. At the cross there was the eternal divine exchange. “He who knew no sin was made to be sin with our sin in order that we might be made righteous with His righteousness” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
If we have received the atonement through repentance and by faith in Him, and through His blood, then we will never experience this wrath! When God sees the Messiah’s blood having been applied spiritually to the doorpost of our heart, He will pass over us, because the Messiah our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed (Exodus 12:13, 23) (1 Corinthians 5:7).
See: “Destined for Tribulation but not for Wrath”
Dear brothers and sisters in the Messiah the time of Tribulation is coming and in the direction the world is going it may well be about to come upon us and even now it may well be at the very gates. However, our rescue is also coming!
As the Messiah our Lord Jesus said; “For then there will be great tribulation, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equalled again. If those days had not be swiftly cut off, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect (blood redeemed, blood washed, blood sanctified New Covenant believers) those days will be shortened!” (Matthew 24:21-22).
As Rabbi the Apostle Paul writes; “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
