Israel: The Last Rogue State

Rogue: Vagrant, tramp, and dishonest or worthless person or an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation (from Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary).


In recent context, a rogue state is one that pursues its own policies and interests independent of, and perhaps contrary to, those of the global community as represented by the United Nations. In this article, I use the term in to highlight the derogatory connotations applied to any state seeking to retain its independence of economics, security, and internal character or governance. In other words, any free state whose sovereign policies are answerable to the Creator and/or its citizens alone.

 

By Christopher J. Patton

Written April-May 2003

History provides perspective to the human story. In history there are points in time that redirect the course of human events. With the American Coalition’s successful invasion of Iraq, I believe that we have entered such a place in the history of the last days of Satan’s dominion over the earth. America and the world now travel on a new plateau of intensification in the signs Jesus gave to His disciples many centuries ago.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the military victories of the United States of America have led to new levels of globalization based on traditional western values and economic capitalism. Eventually this process will lead to the world dominance of a multilateral, international government of interlocking agencies regulating the commerce, politics, and social-religious values (like humanitarian aid, population control, spiritual values, and human rights) of all nations.

Under whatever future name it may have, the Bible indicates that the various power bases of these united nations will be eventually located within the territory of the ancient Roman Empire. This powerhouse will be inspirationally led by the greatest power-worshipping, power-hungry tyrant of all time, the popularly proclaimed savior of humanity. Called Antichrist by the apostle John, he promises peace and prosperity but delivers total destruction.

Antichrist will arise after a number of politically and economically confusing years pass. He will propose a solution to the world’s troubles that divides his enemies. By intrigue and lies, he will enhance the already existing divisions that exist along lines of faith in both the American and Israeli populations. In an environment of increasing anti-Semitism and Jewish assimilation, Antichrist will favor and preach tolerance for all peoples, and blame all of the world’s problems on those intolerant folks who honor and/or believe in the God of Israel as the one, true God beside whom there is no other.

He may even encourage the collection of such intolerant folks in the land of Israel with the signing of his seven-year treaty of peace, which will either authorize or legitimize the construction of a temple to the God of Israel in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. However, about half way through this treaty, the temple and sacrifices prove to be an affront to the Muslims led by an Egyptian king who attacks Israel. Antichrist defeats this king and all of his allies and returns to Jerusalem realizing his earlier mistake. “The time has come for a new application of my previously too humane final solution,” he announces from his new throne in the Jerusalem Temple. “We do not need this false, bloody God of Israel with His sacrifices and contentious followers. There will be no more sacrifices, and those who hold to the outdated notions and doctrines of an Israelite messianic age must reform their beliefs.”

But let’s back-up and review one possible scenario as to how the world gets to this dramatic scene so powerfully presented in the Bible. Remember, I am presenting a tool useful for conceptual planning and not an absolute statement of doctrine or prophecy.

The Iraqi Precedent

What’s so bad about removing that evil dictator, Saddam Hussein from oppressing the Iraqi people? Nothing, by itself. Saddam Hussein qualified himself to be removed from power by his decidedly evil oppression of the Iraqi people as well as by his support of terrorism against Israel and the United States. Moreover, the cost to date for the U.S. and the ‘coalition of the willing’ for his removal has been very reasonable in both lives and money when viewed from the perspective of an intercontinental military operation.

The problem is that United States military power is being used to prop up a global system of government that is evolving out of the present United Nations. President Bush justified the invasion of Iraq on the basis of UN resolutions. As I will show below, the use of American power to eliminate opposition to the international integration of all peoples and states into a global system of government began nearly a hundred years ago. This latest application of American resources and blood to advance the political agenda of interests that will one day terminate our constitutional liberties is not a new development. Neither are the political constraints that seemingly forced our nation into the position where we had no choice but to invade Iraq. The president and the military were maneuvered into a foreign policy corner where our nation ‘had’ to act almost out of self-defense as it were.

I believe that the world has now entered into a new era of wars justified by a need to make the world safe for decent human beings of any and every race, ethnic heritage, and creed. Of course, there is one exception: Israel is not supposed to find safety by force of arms. More on Israel later.

The simple reason is that terrorism is not good for business. It destroys global commerce, which in turn leads to increased poverty and political strife around the world as people struggle to survive in an increasingly populous planet. We have sufficient resources, if they can be decently distributed in the process of exchanging goods and services through fair and open, market-based commerce. For free international trade to work there must be relative economic stability, a level-playing field financially and legally, international communications, and a way to fulfill transactions – from transferring payments to delivering the purchased goods or services.

Some of the reasons the Bush administration gave to the American public and the “free world” were:

Expanding upon that last purpose explains many of the development programs already underway. For example, the democratic process is thought to be the only viable way to balance the political power of the various ethnic and religious communities located in the territory of modern Iraq. There are also many calls for the Iraqi government to be secular since religion is seen as a primary cause for bloody conflict between competing people groups. Furthermore, economic sanctions need to be removed so that the Iraqi people can engage in fair, open markets where they can sell their oil and engage in the buying selling upon which all prosperity flows in today’s world.

Of course, the entry of Iraqi oil into the international market place will result in the general decline of oil prices due to increased supply. A decline in oil prices will stimulate the global economy, which is now struggling to keep its head above the waters of financial debt. Furthermore, a steady increase in Iraqi oil production (under heavy western protection) will reduce the relative economic and political leverage of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iraq may even withdraw from OPEC so that her oil resources may generate the funds needed to rebuild the country more quickly by pumping as much oil and gas as possible.

By lowering prices and taking market share, abundant Iraqi oil production will moderate the wealth, power and influence of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia is the chief exporter of radical Sunni Muslim fundamentalism that inspires terrorists (like Al `Qaida and Hamas), and Iran is the homeland to Shi’a fundamentalism that inspires another whole group of Islamic terrorists (like Hezbollah). Iran is also racing to master nuclear power production and acquire nuclear weapons to use against any who oppose them. Furthermore, many Iranians believe that, once developed and deployable in sufficient numbers, they need to use atomic weapons to eradicate Israel and any Jews who do not convert to Islam.

Roadmap to Gog and Magog

At the time of this writing, Israel has agreed to the international ‘Roadmap to Peace.’ Only ‘extreme’ right-wing Jewish Zionists, Neoconservatives, Christian Zionists, and Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria are opposing this proposed exchange of land for peace with the Arab Palestinian authority. Only time will tell how this interim step will unfold towards that prophesied final seven-year treaty of peace in the Mideast. I believe that some period of interim stability and optimism will set in – perhaps lasting the duration of the rest of the Bush and Sharon administrations. Regardless of the specifics, as soon as Israel catches her breath from this capitulation to multilateral economic and political pressure – especially from the United States, she will next suffer from increasingly negative political fallout for her possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Already, Syria has called for the Mideast to be a region free of the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” because, according to almost complete Arab consensus, Israel is the biggest threat to peace in the Mideast. Israel possesses and can deliver an uncertain, but more than adequate, number of nuclear weapons upon her sovereign decision in self-defense. Because she does not admit their existence, Israel has not needed to sign any international nuclear conventions. The Jewish state has more United Nations resolutions on the books against it than any other nation in the world. Already, Israel is the borderline pariah state, technically a part of the system, but resisting it whenever the issue comes down to her sovereignty, which includes the nuclear armaments viewed as being essential for her survival. To most observers, the survival of Israel as an independent nation is also critical to the survival of the Jewish people on earth.

In short, two accusations recently used to justify military action against the Iraqi rogue state could be used against Israel even today. Only the protective friendship of the mighty United States of America keeps such potential activity at bay. It will not always be this way. Sometime in the prophetically near future, sudden military action will indeed be taken against Zion that only the Creator God of the Bible can defend her from. The reasons to be given will essentially come down to:

I believe that these reasons will be used to justify increasing censure of the Jewish state of Israel. She is going to come under increasing political and economic pressure to admit to the possession of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. After this admission, the world community will pile the pressure on Israel to sign treaties first to monitor and reduce her stockpiles, and eventually, to give up completely the possession of nuclear weapons.

The Rise of Anti-Semitism

I think that it is probable that Israel will initially refuse to cooperate with multinational demands to destroy her nuclear weapons. Ultimately, Russia, Iran, Turkey and their Islamic allies will secretly launch a massive attack against the Jewish state as described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. I believe that they may do so to try to force Israel to comply with U.N. resolutions calling for her nuclear disarmament even though Israel will likely be fully engaged in related negotiations at the time. Prior to that attack, anti-Semitism will have risen dramatically in the United States as well as in the entire world, as Israel and the Jewish people are branded as ‘Zionist warmongers’ who endanger the peace and prosperity of everyone.

If an overdue economic crisis and/or terrorist attacks occur at the same time, the persecution could become intense very quickly. Many Jewish people will emigrate from North America to Israel. Those who leave sooner will be able to take more assets with them. Despite absorption difficulties, this influx of human and financial capital will power the Israeli economy towards tremendous economic growth. This wealth will be part of what attracts the northern alliance.

Meanwhile, Satan will emote the anti-Semitic diatribes and accusations beyond any effective rational rebuttal. Christian Zionists or other fundamentalist believers will be cast together with the Jewish people (‘Those Jews are all Zionists – except for a few friends I know.’) as intolerant extremists by a coalition of new age spiritualists, mainline Christians, Muslims, the social left, and sexual libertarians. These diverse groups will be driven by a charged spirit of twisted love to jump on board the bias bandwagon to blame the Jews for all that is wrong in the world. Once again, the world will believe that it has a ‘Jewish problem.’

Russia and her allies will eventually take action launching a massive military attack against the land of Israel, but God will dramatically intervene and decisively destroy these attackers. In the aftermath of God’s victory on behalf of Israel over modern Gog and Magog, Antichrist will take over what ever is left of the attacking nations and force the defeated forces of Islam to make a permanent peace with Israel.

Antichrist’s humane solution to the ‘Jewish Problem’ will be to quarantine those irritating people by moving them all to Israel – globalism’s version of the ghetto or gulag. The Israeli globalists will agree to give up their nuclear weapons for western security agreements. They will accommodate the traditionalists among them by arranging for the world’s permission to build a new Jewish temple, a ‘House of Prayer for All Peoples’ on the temple mount. (See below.) In fact Antichrist will probably even force Israel to accept any biblical Christians still around as well as Jews because they worship the same God, and they will be just as unwanted by their host countries.

But, what role does America play in this scenario?

America and the Growth of Globalization

I am an American patriot. I love the flag, but I love the Constitution more. The freedoms granted by God to worship Him and pursue a happy livelihood within responsible guidelines are precious to the necessity of defense by arms. As a nation, we have been called on to do just that with increasing frequency. Over the last hundred years, the United States military has increasingly found itself fighting beyond our borders in order to defend our freedoms at home. While some of these actions may be shamefully linked to the protection of politically influential commercial interests abroad, most have been reasonably justified as protecting our national interests. Some have been directed against real threats to our country and its citizens.

Strangely to many of us, our efforts to defend freedom abroad are often resented and resisted. Sometimes these attitudes are simply due to the competitive personalities and realities of international politics. Sometimes it is an issue of the corrupting influence of our less than moral culture. Certainly, the most important aspect of this global lack of appreciation for America can be traced back to the fact that many cultures are spiritually enslaved and therefore do not understand or appreciate our Bible-based values, seeing our Christian roots as a threat – even though our nation is barely “Christian” any more.

However, I want to offer another explanation, which may also contribute to understanding the world’s mistrust of American economic and military power as exercised since 1900. Every time that the United States wins a war or lesser military engagement, such as overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s government of Iraq, the world ends up advancing the cause of global government significantly. Over the decades, inexorable progress has been made across the board in the financial, economic, and political arenas. Sometimes one arena surges ahead, then another catches up, or a third revs on past.

Part of this progress has been accomplished through the formation of multilateral to international agencies to regulate treaties. Less directly, nongovernmental organizations have been created to promote changes in social values and practices using intentionally designed educational programs sugar-coated with humanitarian aid. None of the United Nations programs that teach anti-biblical worldview and/or anti-American values would have been possible without the leading role of major segments in our United States government’s professional bureaucracy, our massive financial aid, or without our world dominating military power.

Do I wish defeat for our forces? Not yet and perhaps never. But I do believe that we need to see the trend in what is happening. Times are quickly changing, but these changes are too gradual for most of the public to notice. Yet, the days already shorten that the Word of God can go forth freely from North America, offering Americans and others around the world the opportunity to repent and receive in faith the gospel of Jesus the Messiah, the One who offered Himself as a sacrificial lamb is who is returning soon as the conquering Lion of Judah and King of kings.

Very briefly, here’s an overview of the progress of globalism after U.S. victories in World War I:

World War II:

Korean War:

Vietnam War:

Gulf War I:

War on Terror and/or Gulf War II:

The Perils of Patriotism

American patriotism is being used to fuel military victories that either force or persuade laggard states to join and participate in the global new world order. America’s recent military success has driven our strategic competitors – Europe, Russia and China into greater cooperation and alliance against us. Russia, in particular, is seeking to join with France and Germany within the context of NATO and the European Community in order to counter U.S. influence and power. China is making alliances with Russia and working to lower regional trade and investment barriers between themselves and the other nations of Asia. In particular, the Asian states have already begun to implement steps towards a currency union similar in concept to Europe’s Euro.

While the United States currently benefits more than any other single nation from a global system of free trade and free markets, our government has already surrendered direct control of this source of power to the World Trade Organization and other multilateral treaty organizations. When it comes to the economy, we must continuously compete by offering greater overall financial return on invested capital. Not only does this require increased economic productivity and leading edge research and development, it also requires a stable currency. The U.S. dollar cannot be allowed to decline too much in comparison to other currencies, especially the Euro, or the net earnings of global investors in U.S. bonds will turn to losses. This potential for loss is especially true when it comes to U.S. government notes and bonds, like Treasury Bills. Also, the U.S. dollar can’t be allowed to become too strong, or it will reduce our companies’ ability to make money from exports.

So what’s next? America’s freedom and economic prosperity are propped up by, and dependent upon, our military power. We are a “world class” winner, and that status attracts investor confidence and the capital investment that goes along with that confidence. Without continued outside investment in America, our economy would collapse under its huge mountain (over $25 trillion) of public and private debt.

Understanding the general direction of Bible prophecy, I believe that the United States will retain her freedom and relative dominance until the main “coalition of terror” or “rogue” states are brought under the control of the growing global governance system of interlocking, multilateral agreements, treaties, regulating agencies and social-humanitarian-human rights conventions. Once this steadily evolving global system of interlocking regional organizations is in effective administrative control of the world, America will sink into relative obscurity behind Europe due to some confluence of events.

The final combination of factors that lead to our decline and fall does not really matter. Perhaps our economy will be stressed to collapse because of the military undertakings, or perhaps America will receive a massive terror or limited nuclear attack. The true bottom line is that our morally corrupt and materialistic society has already sinned enough to justify God’s judgment. Although we may not be the Babylon of Revelation 18, our society and culture are certainly described there. If we do not wish to receive the corresponding punishments for those sins, we must not compromise a biblical faith by becoming entangled in them. (Revelation 18:4) This is an extremely difficult challenge because most Christians are totally enmeshed in our complex cultural trap of socioeconomic systems of finance and commitments.

Are Yeshua’s dedicated faithful removed from the scene prior to this attack and the appearance of Antichrist on the scene? The Bible is unclear. What is very clear is that the Bride of Christ must be holy and unengaged from Babylonian globalism. I lean towards believing that America’s dramatic decline will occur before the Rapture, the immanent, thief-in-the-night prophesied return of Jesus for His Bride. I believe that the Bride of Christ is spared the terrors and trials of the tribulation years, but others have come to different conclusions. The only sure plan of action is to promptly and consistently live in a state of repentant grace, believing in the atoning sacrifice of Yeshua/Jesus. We must submit our wills to Him, totally trusting Him with our lives in His hands.

However it may come, the timing of America’s demise will probably coincide with her abandonment of Israel in a rising tide of domestic anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism / anti-Biblicism. During the increasing intensity of this irrational hatred of the God of Israel, many North American Jews will emigrate to Israel, fulfilling God’s promises of bringing all of His people back to their homeland. I don’t believe that anything else could more effectively motivate North America’s Jewish population to move to Israel. I also believe that evangelical followers of Jesus will find themselves the victims of anti-Semitic hatred as well.

The four great regional powers prophesied to exist in the world at the end times are the Gog and Magog alliance, the King of the South, the Kings of the East, and Antichrist, who is the leader of western civilization - a resurrection of the Roman Empire. These four powers already function in nascent capacity. Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 predict that God destroys the first of these four powers when Gog and Magog attack Israel.

At their defeat, Antichrist takes credit and charismatically leads the world in finally solving the Mideast crisis by forging a seven-year treaty with Israel that includes the provisions for rebuilding the temple. Antichrist’s world dominance continues through the first half of the seven-year peace treaty signed with Israel (Daniel 9:27) at which time he will be challenged by the other remaining regional powers. First, he must deal with an attack by the King of the South, but he has little chance to savor that victory with his grand entry into Jerusalem, where he will also vanquish his religious opposition by killing God’s two witnesses for all to see. Then he defiles the temple by declaring himself god only to be disturbed by reports coming to him about the Kings of the East (Daniel 11:40-45).

Israel: The Seed of the New Age to Come

The modern state of Israel is the moldering seed out of which the spiritual restoration of the government or kingdom of God will take place. (See Paul’s analogy in 1Corinthians 15:35-42 where the seed or mortal body is destroyed as the new plant or resurrected being comes to life.) The actual government of the human state will not last into the millennium even though the community of the nation will survive and provide what continuity there might be of material culture and technology into the true new age to come under the reign of the Israelite King and Messiah. Throughout the prophets – most graphically in Ezekiel 37, God reveals that His restoration of the natural seed of Abraham begins by His acts of grace without any precondition of spiritual repentance to set the stage. The fulfillment of all of God’s promises and covenants to Israel – both spiritual and material – depend upon the already accomplished resurrection victory of Yeshua/Jesus over Satan (the god of this world II Corinthians 4:4) and his main power, death (Hebrews 2:14-16). Out of the Jewish nation’s collective Great Tribulation, faith in the true God of Israel will again be forged and with it faith in the true messiah, Yeshua.

Even as a reborn spiritual nation, Israel will be resurrected out of the corruption of its mortal populace who repent under their national trials, so God will begin other millennial trends now in preparation for their eventual fulfillment. Even as out of the dissolution of the modern Israeli government will grow the Kingdom of God on earth at Messiah’s return, so Israel is already growing in power militarily and economically. In fact, Israel will be the only independent nation organized enough to fight Antichrist at the final battle of Jerusalem even as she will receive the wealth of all nations gathered there. (Zechariah 14:14)

Thus, I believe that the Bible predicts that Israel will be the last bastion of individual liberty and national freedom in the world – even though a majority of her political leaders attempt accommodation with Antichrist and the international community of nations. The tension between those Israelis possessing a more or less biblical vision and those who embrace and practice a global realpolitic is easily observable in both the history of the State of Israel as well as in her present political environment.

The Bible describes this division in Daniel 11:32-35 and in Malachi 3:14-18. Historically, the division of the Jewish people between Hellenists and the Maccabees, who became the Pharisees, foreshadowed what will yet come to pass in the days of Antichrist. Globalists in charge of the Israeli government will sign the seven-year covenant or treaty with Antichrist, probably surrendering and destroying Israel’s nuclear arsenal as part of creating a nuclear free zone in the Mideast. In exchange for destroying their nuclear arsenal, Israel will receive guarantees of protection and trade agreements granting her free, unhindered economic participation into the world economy through the resurrected Roman system, which will be the dominant power in the world at that time as well as the one most critical markets for the growth of Israel’s economy.

In order to finesse the internal dissention that divides Israel almost to the point of civil war, Antichrist will provide for or sanction the construction of a Jewish House of Prayer for All Nations on the Temple Mount. An earthquake will probably have destroyed the existing Muslim structures, the Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, during the Gog and Magog war (See Ezekiel 38:14-20). At the time of the treaty the majority of the Muslims will demur to this arrangement pointing to the earthquake as ‘the hand of Allah’ much as the Arabic peoples did after the earthquake in Jerusalem in 747AD that destroyed the recently built hostels for Muslim pilgrims erected by the Umayyad Caliphate in a failed attempt to compete with the traditional Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. This pragmatic religious interpretation of the consequences of the failed Gog and Magog attack will be accompanied by lucrative promises of security and economic incentives for the Moslems of the Mideast. Perhaps they will even be part of the prophesied seven-year treaty between Israel and Antichrist.

The first half of this seven-year period will seem to be anything but a trial to secular eyes. The world will generally be at peace and wealth will be generated through increasing world trade and global integration. However, behind-the-scenes tension will mount the critical contest for the spiritual leadership of the emerging new world order. While religious tolerance and freedom will be enforced everywhere, the true meaning of ‘tolerance’ will be to forcefully silence any true expression of biblical repentance and faith in Yeshua/Jesus as the one way to salvation.

Those forty-two months will be a time of spiritual confusion with many miracles claimed, or actually performed. Because of the Antichrist’s agreement to the Jerusalem temple, the only legal protection for persons observing a biblical faith in the entire world will exist in Israel. In fact, it is probable that Antichrist will encourage or even mandate Jewish emigration to Israel. He may even force the Zionist Jewish state to accept Christian Zionists. Thus, once again and coming full circle back to the early chapters of Acts, the core of faith in Yeshua/Jesus will be found in the Holy Land. From there the only true gospel will go forth from Jerusalem to prepare the way for the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 2 and 11.

In response to the rise of Antichrist (the Beast), as the great political leader, and the False Prophet, as a great religious leader in the global community (Revelation 13), God will have raised up two witnesses at the temple in Jerusalem (Revelation 11). The Antichrist and False Prophet will espouse a universalistic spirituality that has evolved out of a New Age psycho-spiritual milieu. This faith espouses the spiritual evolution of man towards the ‘christ-consciousness’ of Lucifer. This lying illusion is focused on the false spirit of the knowledge of good and evil, the yin-yang philosophy that one must embrace the dark to understand the light or make connection with the evil found within so that the good might emerge.

Part of this spiritual system promotes the elimination of the physical blemishes of mankind in order to enhance the process of making the ‘next jump’ in the spiritual evolution of man with the appearance of a new race of mankind possessing elevated cosmic energy. Naturally, the elimination of the ‘primitive’ or ‘throwback’ Jewish race is part of the New Age ‘Plan” which is energized by the ‘Great Invocation.’ Satan is the original anti-Semite because he wants to thwart the God of Israel and destroy all mankind, which is only possible if he can destroy all of the natural and/or spiritual seed of Israel. Since he works through human agents, anti-Semitism has had an eternal existence on earth due to Satan’s repeated inspiration of his agents through the ages to hate the Jewish people.

Opposing Antichrist, the two great witnesses, along with 144,000 evangelists (Revelation 7), will warn the world of its impending destruction at the hands of these popular western leaders even as they announce the immanent coming of Israel’s conquering Messiah. While I believe that this prophetic duo will identify Yeshua/Jesus as the true messiah and Son of God, there will probably remain many Jewish people who are still not convinced about Yeshua/Jesus even then. These folks will look for the true messiah to appear soon for the first time, and they won’t be disappointed…perhaps a bit surprised. Of course, the Antichrist and the False Prophet will not appreciate this empowered opposition. They will accuse the Israelites of fractious intolerance and persecute the messengers and those who repent due to their preaching, wherever they can find them and do so.

Antichrist and the Kings of the South and East will use this time to consolidate their power and compete for financial advantage. Europe will have absorbed Russia, the Americas, and large parts of Africa and Australasia into its sphere of influence. The states of Asia will greatly increase their cooperation with each other in an attempt to balance the European hegemony. Already possessing half of the world’s population, they will work diligently and furiously to assemble a corresponding economic and military juggernaut to deal with the revived Roman, western civilization.

Even though the world’s Muslims will have been greatly humbled, they will especially take advantage of the opportunity to rebuild. Islam also has prophecies about a coming messiah, or mahdi, who will lead the forces of Allah to final victory and conquest of the entire Christian, Jewish, and pagan world. The great western union of nations will have taken over the Christian mantle and religious forms upon itself, and Asia represents the pagans. In the Islamic mind the key to first destroy all of Allah’s opposition is to destroy the Jewish people and remove them from their promised land.

In Daniel 11:40 The King of the South (or mahdi) ‘pushes at’ or ‘collides with’ the King of the North (Seleucid part of the Roman Empire / Antichrist) breaking the seven-year treaty. I believe he does this by attacking Israel, who calls on Antichrist for protection. In the process of defeating the King of the South and his allies, Antichrist also kills the two witnesses, terminates the sacrifices, and defiles the temple at Jerusalem by entering the holy of holies and declaring himself god (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15-22). Believers will flee into the wilderness where they will be protected (Revelation 12:6, 14-17), which is probably why Edom, Moab, and Ammon escape from the armies of the Beast.

But most of the rest of the world does not escape. Indications are that about 90% of people will die before Satan is stopped. While perhaps one third of the Israelis will survive, millions of believers will be martyred before the Messiah comes. However, come He does - with power and righteousness and healing. The armies of the nations gathered against Jerusalem are overthrown, the temple is cleansed when He takes His rightful seat in the Holy of Holies, and rivers of healing waters flow from His throne to repair the earth.

As King of Kings, Yeshua - being first the ‘King of the Jews,’ elevates Israel as the head of all the nations in the reign of His person over all nations. Yeshua reigns with His Bride, the resurrected Body. Their kingdom of Israelites is the first to learn and obey as a nation, and so as a nation of mortals, they will fulfill their chosen role of being a light to all peoples everywhere, showing the way to the blessings of God.

 
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