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5. The war of the end times

In this section we will show:

5.1 Causes of war

The second seal of Revelation was, as we have seen, the man on the red horse. With his sword, he represents falsehood. He was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people would begin to kill one another more than ever.
The rider's great sword probably means that wars will become more frequent and more all-encompassing, with more effective weapons. The world's armament expenditures have certainly gone down during the period 1987-1994, with the end of the cold war, but arms money would still suffice to raise the standard of living 100% - 300% if given instead to help the world's poorest people.

In our day, the following main causes for war are, as already mentioned:

  1. Differences in political ideologies, such as Naziism, which gave rise to the world wars.
  2. Ethnic conflicts between various people groups, which lead to local wars. According to Jesus' own words, these will become all the more common in the end times. Matthew 24:7 speaks about "nation" (or "ethnic group") rising against nation. The most recent examples of this in the 1990's were the civil war in Jugoslavia, and the numerous tribal conflicts in Africa.
  3. Wars between poor and wealthy countries, which will likewise increase in the future.
  4. Primarily, the battle over the world's last oil reserve, in the Middle East. In Matthew 24:28, Jesus refers to this in the last days, "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." ("Corpse" = oil, which is just the decomposed remains of living things.)
  5. Hatred towards the Jews, which will make Jerusalem "a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it shall grievously hurt themselves." (Zechariah 12:1-14)
  6. Gerilla-wars in the third world are wellknown since the second world war . But since the terrorattacs on the 11th of September 2001 this lawless kind of war moved into the industrialized world, and could be seen on TV by the whole world.

5.2 Falsehood, the ammunition of the information war

In the Bible, the Devil is called the "father of lies." All people repeatedly meet our spiritual enemy's ancient and well-proven method of deceitfulness, in order to tempt people into the wrong path.

The Devil has used this with great success ever since the fall of man:

Some examples of successful misinformation during the 1900's:
  1. Hitler came to power, and was able to start the second world war and the persecution of the Jews, by means of systematic and comprehensive misinformation towards his own people. The Nazi propaganda machinery, which was at that time led by Gobbels, was so effective that it was not until long after the fall of the third reich, that many German people realized that they had been fundamentally deceived.
  2. The success of communism relies largely upon a similar systematic misinformation campaign, built mostly upon Marxist-Leninist dialectics. Besides outright lies, deception comes from giving familiar concepts a completely new, but false meaning. In this way they are able to believe that reality is better than it actually is.
  3. Under communist dictatorships, people were told that they lived a life of freedom. In spite of the fact that their goal was to build a classless thousand-year reign once they came to power, the communist party seldom hesitated to defend their own position of power with violence. Wars which were started in the name of "freedom" have often turned into a systematic imprisoning and killing of all "enemies of the people," who have a different way of thinking. This happened in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia, among other places. All together, the "communist freedom" is estimated to have cost more than 100 million people their lives.
  4. The Berlin Wall took the prize, when it was built in order to prevent escape to the West, and then was defended by saying that it was needed in order to hinder people from infiltrating from the West.
  5. We Swedes have often behaved like some sort of conscience for the world. Nevertheless, Swedish leftist groups, and even the government, called the dictatorships in the East, "eastern democracies" for many decades. Our aid to undeveloped countries likewise became increasingly a means of supporting leftist dictators in those countries
  6. The civil war in Jugoslavia would never have been so terrible as it was, if the controlling groups did not have power over the mass media. By using systematic misinformation, they succeeded in inciting their people groups to not only go to war, but to also rape and torture, and to mass slaughter of the civilian population.

The Antichrist will use all of these recipes for misinformation on a worldwide scale during the final phase of this age.

The culmination, as we shall see, will probably be the fight between the Antichrist's "propaganda minister" and God's two prophets. (See illustration 5.7) Not until the awful consequences of the Devil's help and advice become evident to the entire universe, can God use His omnipotence and slay the Antichrist, and imprison the Devil:

5.3 Conventional war with diabolical wickedness

Theoretically, conventional war is to be fought between the armies of the contending parties. Civilians and prisoners of war are to be thereby protected in accordance with international conventions of war. However, developments in the 1900's have shown that civilians have always suffered the most.

Furthermore, conventional war becomes extremely cruel when the conventions of war are ignored. This was seen during the second world war, and now recently in connection with the civil war in Jugoslavia. What was most frightening in the latter case was that all sides involved systematically violated the conventions of war. Raping, torture, and mass slaughter of civilians, in addition to ethnic cleansing, became a daily occurrence in such a barbaric manner, that it was worse than anything seen in Europe for ages. This ought to certainly give every thinking person in the world cause to reflect upon our evil nature.

Can this extreme wickedness depend upon demonic possession, or are we so evil in ourselves?


5.4 Wars with nuclear weapons

5.4.1 Weapon arsenals are enormous, in spite of disarmament.
It will be even worse in the case of a nuclear war. During the days of the cold war, the world's total nuclear weapon arsenal was somewhere between 50,000 and 65,000 warheads. This would be sufficient to kill the entire population of the world several times over. Even if the planned and agreed upon reductions between the USA and Russia were to be carried out, in the year 2000 they would still have at least 15,000- 20,000 nuclear weapons, of which 12,000 are long-range missiles. These alone are sufficient to eliminate all life on the earth. In addition to this, we have nuclear weapons in various other known nuclear states such as England, France, China, India and Pakistan. Finally, we have countries such as Israel, and others, which have neither acknowledged nor denied the possession of nuclear weapons. Nevertheless it is estimated that Israel could have up until 200 nuclear weapons.

The bitter reality of today is in fact that Russia does not appear to have the resources needed to scrap more than 10-30% of their conventional weapons arsenal, as agreed upon in the so-called CFE- treaty.
It would cost even more for them to scrap their nuclear weapons. The risk is furthermore no longer negligible, that poor and unstable former Soviet states will be tempted to sell their nuclear weapons to the third world. Some researchers studying the future therefore fear that the world could experience some form of nuclear war within the next 10 years.

In the event of a large-scale nuclear war, it is estimated that 50% of the population of the USA would be killed in the beginning of the war, including 50 million killed in just the first 24 hours.
It would take only 4 missiles in the megaton class in order to kill 20 million people in England.

In addition to this, several countries have had, and likely will continue to have, chemical and biological weapons, despite international bans against them. These are relatively easy to produce, but can nonetheless have a sufficiently devastating effect. However, the world's total store of these weapons is not so well known as that of nuclear weapons. But estimates of their number suggest that just these weapons would suffice to wipe out all life on earth 5-10 times over. Iraq alone has had enormous supplies of biological/chemical weapons, and at the time of this writing in 1997, the UN was still searching for additional hidden stores.

Below, we will give a short description of the effects of atomic, biological and chemical weapons, in order to help you understand in your Biblereading what God let his prophets see for our sake, more than 2000 years ago.

5.4.2 The effect of nuclear detonations
We will first look at how unbelievably well the prophets of the Bible describe the effects of a nuclear explosion. The explosion's effect becomes all the more powerful depending upon the size of the warhead. Small missiles, which are in the kiloton class, can destroy a city, and megaton Hydrogen bombs can almost destroy a whole country. (The size designations refer to the amount of dynamite to which the explosion's power corresponds.)

Earlier, we mentioned that the prophet Joel describes the familiar mushroom cloud of the nuclear explosion as "blood and fire and columns of smoke." (Joel 2:30-32) The light from the hot fireball of the explosion reddens with cooling, and due to upwardly swirling dust. In the event of a global nuclear war, so much dust is blasted into the atmosphere that the light of the moon would become red, and the sun would be darkened to such a degree that an arctic winter would cover large parts of the earth.
During my military service, I was trained as a high-level advisor on the effects of nuclear weapons. In my civilian employment, I was one of the authors of the international IAEA guide for disaster preparedness in nuclear power plants, and also co-authored the Swedish guide for hospital treatment of those suffering from radiation exposure. I have also produced a text book and a film on these subjects. With this background, I give the following simplified summary:

Simplified description of the effects of atomic weapons on people and buildings:

  1. Individuals who happen to be in the center of the explosion are vaporized immediately.
  2. Those who are in the vicinity are blinded by the intense light, and receive acute, lethal doses of radiation. The Bible describes this as, their eyes and flesh "rot" while they are still on their feet. (Zechariah 14:12)
  3. At a distance of several tens of kilometers, buildings are blasted to pieces by the enormous shock wave from the explosion, and then are burned up by the fire storm which follows somewhat later.
  4. We would probably consider those who died directly in the explosion as the lucky ones. Those who are further away from the blast, so that they only receive burns - and/or radiation exposure - are subjected to the worst suffering. Those with severe radiation exposure could live up to two months, suffering terribly. Those with mild radiation exposure would probably survive, but could develop cancer after several years.
  5. Hospital resources would therefore be seriously insufficient. Besides this, many hospitals would have been destroyed, since in general they are located in cities which would be main targets for missiles.
  6. In the Book of Revelation (16:21), the prophecy is completed with hail. Hail is formed in hydrogen bomb detonations when the mushroom cloud carries huge amounts of moist air from the earth high up into the atmosphere. The moisture then condenses and freezes into gigantic hail stones which fall and afflict people with yet another plague.
  7. At very great distances from the blast, the effect upon people is reduced, but radioactive fallout can "infect" crops and drinking water so that they become unsuitable for consumption. Here the Bible uses the expression that the water becomes so "bitter" that many die from drinking it. (Rev.8:11)
  8. Following an earthquake, disaster assistance can generally begin immediately, but after a nuclear explosion, relief efforts can be delayed for months until radiation from the fallout has subsided sufficiently. (In Ezekiel 39:14, the prophet gives us an example of this, which we will refer to under point 5.7.1, in connection with the war.)
  9. The final effect of interest to us in our industry- and information age is the so-called "EMP-wave", when a powerful nuclear weapon is detonated high in the atmosphere. Then almost all of our computerized communication systems, such as telephone, radio, TV and banking computers would be knocked out by the powerful electromagnetic impulses, which are induced in electrical systems by the explosion. Older radios built with tubes, and old electro-mechanical telephone switchboards would survive, but not today's transistorized systems. The few installations which our society has so far chosen to protect with extra radiation shielding are the extremely expensive and important defense systems, such as the JAS-fighter plane's computers.
  10. Nuclear explosion high over Hamburg, Germany, would disable Europe's entire computer network within a radius of 1500 km; that is, from Naples in the south to Haparanda in the north. Even our modern cars, which have transistorized ignition systems, would become inoperable.
  11. Furthermore, since over 90% of all military communication within Europe is said to still use the vulnerable civilian telephone network. We can only imagine the information chaos which even the military communication net would incur as a result of just the EMP-effect.

People whose hearts are hardened will refuse to repent, in spite of all these plagues, and will instead curse God for these things, which evil people themselves have caused. (Rev. 16:9-11)


5.5 War and sabotage with biological/chemical weapons

  1. Chemical weapons, in the form of deadly gases (mustard gas, for example), were introduced during the first world war. They were relatively ineffective weapons at that time, and besides, when the wind change, they could threaten the users themselves. Although the use of gas was later forbidden, several countries have secretly manufactured large stores of more advanced varieties (for example, Sarin), which are lethal in extremely small doses.
    This was what the Japanese doomsday sect managed to secretly manufacture for the purpose of using on a large scale in a future political coup. This example also serves as a frightening illustration of what other terrorist organizations might try to do in the future with these "poor-man's weapons."
  2. Biological weapons, in the form of live bacteria, are easier to spread than lethal gases. The reason is that those who are infected with a contagious sickness themselves become carriers of the infection to others. For the most part, all of the nearly eradicated infectious diseases of the past are found today in the arsenals of weapons researchers.
  3. A combination of these weapons has an even greater effect. According to the prosecutor, the Japanese doomsday sect planned to destroy Tokyo in this way by spraying nerve gas over the city from the air, while simultaneously spreading the horrible infectious disease of botulism on the ground. Botulism is extremely contagious, with severe vomiting, diarrhea, and high mortality as a result of the lack of a medical cure.
  4. As mentioned earlier, Iraq had produced and stored enormous amounts of biological/chemical weapons, in the form of warheads for their Scud-missiles. It is uncertain to what degree the UN succeeded in finding and destroying these weapons.
  5. Taken all together, the Middle East is currently covered by various types of missiles, with ranges from 2000 - 20,000 km. Israel and Saudi Arabia possess the long-range weapons, but Iran has ongoing efforts to make similar ones by the year 2000.


5.6 The war of information in the end times

In peace-time, our high-technology society has good opportunities for a growing state of welfare. But in crises, and in situations of war, it becomes extremely vulnerable. For example, a well-placed sabotage attack against the telephone and banking centers in Sweden could cast the country into chaos, if all salary payments were stopped, and no business transactions could be carried out.

Some of the technological threats against an information-based society are:

  1. Computer viruses, produced by sick pranksters among computer "hackers", are already today a danger for individual computers.
    These can unintentionally be transferred to our computers when we communicate with the outside world via diskette or on a network. The result is that our computer crashes, and in the worst cases, stored information is lost.
    The most dangerous viruses are those which can lie dormant for long periods, and then be activated by a given external signal.
  2. Electronic bombs already exist today which can be hidden, for example, in a briefcase. They resemble the EMP-wave in their effect, although only on a local scale. When they are detonated, they can immediately knock out a central computer, without any sign of an "explosion" being apparent in the surrounding area.
  3. Logistical bombs will be available "on the market" within 20 years. These could, for example, be used against flight controllers in order to redirect planes to the wrong locations.
  4. Living signals. Ever since the Vietnam war, research has been conducted into "marker" chemicals which could be released in small amounts into people's food or drink. Using them, the enemy could then easily trace, for example, the movements of soldiers, and even read off their physical condition.
Our human enemies' purpose with these technological developments is to create chaos, in order to facilitate a takeover in power. However, these technological methods of manipulating the flow of information will hardly affect everybody on earth under conditions of a future war.
But on the other hand, the Antichrist's chief of information, whom the Bible calls the False Prophet, will use misinformation to affect everyone. (See illustration 5.7)


5.7 The Antichrist and the great war of the end times.

We truly live in the time characterized by "wars and rumors of war", as Jesus said in Matthew 24 when describing the various events of the end times. It seems, therefore, somewhat presumptuous to here highlight just a few wars during a time when hundreds of smaller wars have shaken the world, or soon will.

The reason that we nevertheless do so, is that in my opinion, these two or three major wars with nuclear weapons constitute important key steps in the closing out of this age. (See also the comments below.)


5.7.1 The war of Gog and Magog against Israel (Ezekiel 38 and 39)
Reasons for the war: The enemies of Israel will eventually come together in a united attack, in order to try to finally "liberate" Jerusalem, and to drive the Jews into the sea, just as they have always desired to do. Today, these enemies appear to be a number of extreme Muslim states. Israel's defending allies could optimistically be the same countries which fought on the same side in the Kuwait war. In the worst case, Israel would have to stand alone.
The consequences of the war: Currently, Israel is estimated to have 200 nuclear weapons. They would then be forced, in the case of being left to fight alone, to use some of them against the attacking army, which would greatly outnumber their own army.
The attackers would likely be hindered from using nuclear weapons against Israel, since they would then also kill the Palestinians, who live in close proximity to the Jews.
After the war, the extremist Muslim countries will set up new and more moderate governments, which will open their lands for the last world revival, for a short time.
Antichrist: The war will probably open the way for the Antichrist to come on the scene as a peacemaker. He will accomplish this so well that he will then be invited to lead the restored Roman empire, which will be called "The United States of Europe."
The peace will last The prophet then describes with astonishment that Israel waits a whole 7 months (in order for the radioactivity to decay) before they begin to clear the battle field of the dead, and of the remaining radioactivity.
at least 7 years: After this follows at least 7 years of peace, during which time the plundered materials of war serve as fuel.

But just when mankind feels secure, and thinks that no more peril is coming, the worldwide tribulation will begin with the third world war.


5.7.2 The third world war = the sixth trumpet (Rev. 9 and 13)
Possible causes of the war: We have previously warned that the enormous population increase in Asia could eventually lead to massive people movements, and to a new world war. The driving forces could be the difference between the rich and the poor, and also the battle over the last oil supplies in the Middle East. An additional contributing factor could be that altogether too few girls are born in China. Therefore, when the boys of today grow up, they might set out on plundering expeditions against Europe, just like the Asian armies of Ghengis Kahn did once before. It is interesting to note that already today China can almost muster the 200 million strong army, which the prophet here describes.
Satanic driving forces: The driving force behind the unheard of evil in this war and in the next will be a massive satanic possession of people by evil spirits. This occurs when a horde of evil spirits are released from the abyss onto the earth's inhabitants, in conjunction with the 5th trumpet.
The consequences of the war: Against such a huge army, Europe would of course only be able to defend itself with nuclear weapons. The devastation from this war, which constitutes the 6th trumpet, will be so enormous than a third of the world's entire population will be killed (that is, 2-3 billion people). The economy of the world will crash into chaos so deeply that it will make the 1930 stock market crash seem like a mild fluctuation.

All the world's leaders will stand crestfallen before this situation,and before the waves of anarchy and rioting which will result.

The Antichrist attains world dominion: The outcry of the people for a strong and capable leader will likely give the Antichrist the opportunity which he so lustfully desires, namely to completely or partially attain world dominion.

The success will go to his head, however, exactly as it has for other great leaders before him. He will then open himself up to be so completely possessed that he can eventually be said to represent the Devil himself, incarnated as a man.

It starts off with him placing himself in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and declaring himself to be a god who demands the worship of all people.

The satanic evil of the Antichrist: With this, a great persecution of all true Christians, who refuse to worship the Antichrist, will break forth. This will continue until the Bride is delivered from the earth by being raptured up to the skies to meet Jesus.

When the Bride is removed, God gives the world completely over to the Devil for a short time. The satanic rage of the Antichrist will then turn first against the religious establishment, that is, the false harlot church, and against Israel. He will eventually completely wipe out the former.

Then for the first time, Israel will realize their catastrophic mistake, that have all along not only rejected Jesus as their savior, but they have even acknowledged the Devil's representative as their Messiah, savior and god.

Israel's trouble: After this follows a very difficult time of remorse and persecution for Israel, which the Bible calls "Jacob's trouble." (Jer.30) It's possible that some of the Jews will seek protection in the wilderness region of Jordan.
These Jews will grieve over Jesus as deeply as if they were grieving for an only son. (Zech.12:10) The circumstances look to become so immensely difficult that only a third of the people survive to experience their final salvation at the end of the battle of Armageddon.

5.7.3 The final battle is the battle of Armageddon = 7th bowl of wrath (Rev. 16:16-21; Rev 19:11-21)
Possible reasons for the battle: The satanic evil of the Antichrist will, with time, probably become too much for most of the people of the world, who will eventually rebel against him and his remaining loyalists.

At Armageddon, which is a huge plain in northern Israel, the evil and unrepentant armies of mankind will in reality fight part of their last great battle against the God of creation. The battle's colossal ramifications will likely affect the entire world, but several of the prophetic descriptions, including our text, concentrate on Israel and its surroundings.

Christ intervenes: At this time, in order to save Israel and the rest of humanity from a total annihilation, Jesus himself descends to the Mount of Olives as a rider on a white horse, followed by his heavenly armies.
The evil trinity is neutralized: Christ and his armies defeat all of God's enemies, including the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the Devil himself, who is afterwards captured and rendered impotent by being cast into the bottomless pit.

The entire world is shaken by such a violent earthquake that nothing like it has ever happened on earth before. It occurs when the end of the sixth seal's trend coincides with the seventh bowl of wrath, which is a distinct event in time.

The consequences of the battle: As a result of the earthquake and the ongoing global nuclear war, many major cities are destroyed, and the dead are heaped up on the earth.
The salvation of Israel: With their deliverance, the remainder of Israel's population, who have had time to grieve and deeply repent of their sin, become the first nation to ever truly acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior on a single day. (Isaiah 66:8-16)

5.7.4 Comments
Some Bible interpreters maintain that the attack of Gog and Magog is included in the third world war, as well as in the battle of Armageddon.

In the material above, I have chosen to present the most comprehensive model, with its three separate wars. I myself feel that the three nuclear wars, coming close together, would be unbearably hard. When Jesus speaks about the end times, he promises that it would be shortened for the sake of the elect. Otherwise, nobody would survive. (Mark 13:20) The "elect" are here composed of the Bride, along with the Jews who believe in Christ, who are called the "first fruits." The shortening perhaps involves the above mentioned combining of the wars into two wars, and a further general shortening of the worst period of the tribulation.

Even in Revelation 20:8, which definitely describes the absolute last battle in the history of the world, which takes place after the Millennium, Gog and Magog show up again.

Therefore I partially view the expression, "Gog and Magog", as a symbol for the most vehement enemies to the God of creation in these various wars of the end times.

Furthermore, I have purposely refrained from pointing out particular countries in this crowd. Those who live in that time will find out which interpretation is correct.

The important thing is that we don't become locked into a particular interpretation. Otherwise we risk becoming like the Pharisees in Jesus time, who were unwilling to reconsider, and unable to see and recognize reality. However, with the right frame of mind, we will be able to correctly interpret the prophecies and to see where we stand, when we find ourselves in the actual situation.

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