(Revelation 9:17-18) “The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulphur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulphur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulphur that came out of their mouths.”

How does a first century man describe modern warfare? In this vision John had he saw what resembled horses but his description seems to indicate that these ‘horses’ had breastplates of metal and that they were mobile and that fire and sulphur came out of their mouths. It could well be that what he was seeing were armoured tanks belching fire from their barrels, and mobile missile carriers launching their rockets and missiles. The destructive power was so severe that two thirds of mankind perished in this great fiery conflagration. It would seem he was describing a third World War in the last days.

History has a way of repeating itself. When you consider both World War I and World War II they both started with a regional conflict that saw the nations of the world drawn into the arena of the conflict and eventually taking sides. World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The nations of the world were catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918.

During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Turkish Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). The new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction in World War 1. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers had won, more than 16 million people, soldiers and civilians alike were dead! It is also interesting to note that tensions had been brewing throughout Europe, especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe for many years before World War I actually broke out.

World War 2 started with a regional conflict.  Adolph Hitler was on the rise in the political arena in Germany and it was clear that he had militant intent towards Europe, not to mention the European Jews also in his gunsights. Winston Churchill saw what was coming and he saw what Hitler’s intentions really were which was to establish an empire of German Superiority primarily in Europe and even beyond that. Throughout the 1930’s, Winston Churchill spoke out concerning German rearmament, Britain’s lack of comparable military strength, and Adolf Hitler.

Churchill spent most of the decade a mere Member of Parliament and not a member of the British Cabinet. Hitler could have been stopped but no government did anything about that. Hitler signed a bit of paper saying he would not start a war with England and the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain came back to England and on 30 September 1938 before the cameras waved the paper and announced rather with some joviality; “Peace in our time.” Even though the politicians on the European Continent saw what was happening in Germany and the growing hostility by Hitler towards the other European powers they did nothing about stopping him.

In 1939 Adolph Hitler invaded Poland. Japan and Italy had also been stirring and ‘thirsting for blood’ with their imperialistic agenda that matched Hitler’s agenda. World War II had started and America was not involved. Throughout the 1930s, the United States and Japan had been locked in a stalemate over the Japan’s desire to rule vast territories in Asia and the Pacific. Realizing what it would mean if Japan gained control over these territories, the United States opted to step up and try to stop the empire’s expansion. In these matters there was nothing that indicated an all-out war with japan was on the horizon.

In the summer of 1941, in a last-ditch effort to stop Japan, which had persisted in its takeover of more and more territories, the United States introduced a trade embargo. While it still wasn’t inevitable that this would lead to an armed conflict, the increased tension between the two nations was enough of a sign for officials like Admiral James Richardson to know something was on the horizon. Then on the morning of December 7^th 1941 the Japanese hit Pearl Harbour. The Americans had underestimated the Japanese. American complacency was a major factor at Pearl Harbour.

The attack came suddenly and the incoming Japanese planes somehow went under the radar as it were and dropped their torpedo bombs on the ships lying at anchor. Supposedly there were some reports that Roosevelt and the American government knew about that Pearl Harbour may well be targeted by Japan but did nothing to prevent it. Roosevelt more than likely had entertained the thoughts of going to the aid of England and the allied European nations at war with Nazi Germany. However, Pearl harbour was the catalyst that drew the United States into the arena of World War II that was the deadliest military conflict in history.

An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, or about 3% of the 2.3 billion people that comprised the global population in 1940. Deaths directly caused by the war are estimated at 50–56 million, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilian deaths totalled 50–55 million.

Now consider 9/11. It was a wake-up call to America that Islam had started its global Jihad with the western nations. Right now there is another nation hell-bent of the destruction of western democracy especially America and the Jews. The same principality that was behind Adolph Hitler with his twisted compassion to exterminate Jews is behind the Iranian regime. The same Principality that was over Ancient Persia is still over Iran today.

With the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas escalating we see the western nations being drawn into the Middle-East conflict. Houthi rebels in Yemen have significantly stepped up attacks on commercial shipping vessels travelling through the lower Red Sea since mid-November in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. In light of this situation the US announced it had assembled a coalition of countries who had agreed to carry out patrols in the southern Red Sea to try to safeguard vessels against attacks. The coalition, called Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), includes the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. However, it is also worth to note that the leading regional Arab powers Egypt and Saudi Arabia are absent. Once again we must face the reality that Islam is at war with the west.

Iran is the head of the snake of Islamic terrorist tyranny and fighting its proxy war against Israel and the west through Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen, and other lesser terrorist groups in the Middle-East. At present the Biden Administration and the UN are trying to get Israel to allow a cease-fire for so called humanitarian reasons. The reality is that any cease-fire would allow Hamas to regroup and perpetrate more bloody butchery as they did on October 7th. In Iraq American bases are being targeted. No one it seems, apart from Israel, sees that the head of the snake, being Iran, needs to be crushed. No one it seems in the western democracies is willing to hit Iran hard and stop the Ayatollahs in their tracks.

The western politicians are afraid of Islamic power. One way to get Hamas to relinquish hostages is to put heavy sanctions on Qatar that is hosting Hamas leaders living in luxury while their underlings in Gaza are wearing suicide belts. The western politicians are doing what the allied politicians did in WWII and not dealing a decisive blow to Iran and its nuclear infrastructure. The same Jew hating spirit that controlled Hitler is controlling Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. If I understand Daniel Chapter 10 from the Biblical prophetic viewpoint a war it seems will occur between Israel with Iran in the last days (Daniel 10:12-20).

Now it also needs to be said that the countries in the United Nations are withdrawing their support for Israel’s security in the region.  153 nations in the UN voted for a cease-fire in Gaza which would leave Israel susceptible to more incursions by Hamas as we saw on October 7^th and Hamas have made it very clear that they will repeat the butchery as many times as they can. Now Biblically Israel is God’s wife. As God Himself says to Israel through the prophet Hosea; “Israel, I will make you My wife forever. I will be honest and faithful to you. I will show you My love and compassion. I will be true to you, My wife. Then you will know the Lord” (Hosea:2:19-20).

Now God is dealing with Israel and He is allowing Israel to experience applied pressure, not because He has rejected them, but to bring the nation back to Himself and to the Messiah our Lord Jesus. Having said this, those who seek to mess with Israel mess with her husband, the living and eternal Triune God of the universe, who inhabits eternity. The western nations that are insisting Israel broker a prolonged cease-fire are in reality abandoning Israel to its enemies and this includes America that currently has leading politicians in Israel behind closed doors pressuring Bibi Netanyahu and his government to give into their pressure to embrace a cease-fire.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet has until now stood firm in their resolve not to stop the fighting until Hamas have been eradicated as a terrorist organization much to the chagrin of the UN International community including the Biden Administration. God will see to it that those nations that are abandoning Israel to their hostile remorseless Islamic killers will themselves find the same killers in their own backyards and on their own home soil perpetrating murder and mayhem. Europe is already overrun by Islam through Islamic migration, Great Britain is following behind. Mosques are being built throughout the whole European Continent and also in Great Britain. What is happening in Israel is coming to the western democracies because of the way the western politicians are treating Israel God’s wife! Now we have protests and rallies in many major cities in universities and on college campuses in the western democracies against Israel and its right to exist as a nation.

It is interesting to note that in the 1930’s that the US along with other countries in the Western Hemisphere could have saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis. They didn’t. At one point, the US literally turned away a ship of 900 German Jews. Shortly afterward, it rejected a proposal to allow 20,000 Jewish children to come to the US for safety. At the time, the US didn’t know how terrible the Holocaust would become. But Americans did know that Nazis were encouraging vandalism and violence against Jews and many Americans had been alarmed by the Pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938 in the same year President Franklin D. Roosevelt had issued a statement condemning it. But America didn’t feel strongly enough about the mistreatment of Jews to allow them to find a safe harbor in the US. Well Pearl harbour occurred! America was swept into the maelstrom of World War II. The Biden Administration may well be following in the footsteps of their American political forebears but will reap the whirlwind! God is very jealous over His wife Israel and those who seek to harm her will have to deal with Him.

In closing, the war we see John describing in Revelation Chapter 9 seems to be a nuclear war which will see a third of mankind perish in this war. The nations that will be blown apart will be those that have dared to attack Israel. This seemingly mechanised mobile army that look like horses that John sees may well be the armies of the Islamic Anti-Messiah on a global Jihad against the western democracies in Europe, Great Britain and America and possibly against China and Russia, both of which are intolerant of Islam. China and Russia may well be ones that opposes the forces of the Islamic Anti-Messiah as he moves against Israel (Daniel 11:44-45). This end-time army John describes is one that God has raised up to judge the world in rebellion against Him and riddled with idolatry and witchcraft and every sort of wickedness (Revelation 9:20-21).

Whatever happens in the future, the only safe haven for the faithful remnant in Israel and the Body of Messiah spiritually grafted by the Spirit into the Olive Tree Israel, will be under the blood of Messiah by which they are justified by faith in Him and that will rescue them from the wrath to come! (Romans 5:9) (1Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). Even though we may have to face World War III in our lifetime we have the assurance from the Spirit of God and from the Word of God that if we should physically die that we will go to be with the Lord Jesus, being absent from the body but present with the Lord having a sure and certain hope of the resurrection! (2 Corinthians 5:8) (1 Corinthians 15:51-58).

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