My last post said that I believed the end of the Russian/Muslim Nations' war (referred to as the Gog/Magog invasion) might well precipitate a partial nuclear holocaust, between Russia and America. In order to support my theory it is necessary to take pieces of prophecy from different sources of the Bible and combine them, as long as the contexts seem to be consistent, and I think I am not doing violence to the truth of the prophetic word here. But I leave it to the reader to prayerfully judge whether they agree, or not with my reasoning, and I will appreciate any comments, pro or con, to that purpose.
In Revelation 6:12 the apostle John describes his heavenly vision thusly: "And I beheld when he ( the Angel who was revealing the vision to John) had opened the sixth seal, and lo there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;... "Likewise Joel 2: 20 speaks similarly of God promising to, "remove far off from you the northern army" (at least the 17% of it that survives God's wrath). Afterwards he says in verses 30, and 31: "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come." Notice God said He would show "'wonders' in the heavens and in the earth", not necessarily miracles. All he has to do is place the thought in the minds of those in power and it will be done, and the international "shock and awe" effect will be "wondrous", indeed. Also, He states here that these things will happen "before the...day of the Lord come" (a term that is generally associated with Jesus second coming, when He will touch down on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, which apparently doesn't happen at this time (Zechariah 14: 3,& 4).
Here we have similar descriptions of a vision that seems to take place after God destroys most of the invading "northern army", led by "Gog's" Russian forces. This doesn't seem to be the battle of Armageddon that comes later because there is no mention of either the antichrist's European nations, or the forces of the "Kings of the East" (China, Japan, Korea, etc.) participating in it.
Also, the vision of pillars of smoke and fire conjures up images of nuclear mushroom clouds, along with the reference to blood, which may not mean only the obvious blood of the dead, and wounded; but the old testament use of the term "blood" sometimes was used to describe a general pestilence, like a disease that became a deadly plague. Other prophecies describe the pillars of smoke and fire as the heaven (or "the first heaven", the sky) being, "rolled back like a scroll" ( perhaps a description of dust clouds spreading between the mushroom clouds, until they hit the "pillars", and are rolled back on themselves?). If the term "blood" here means a deadly plague, what better way to describe the effects of an overflowing wave of toxic radiation poisoning that would follow a nuclear attack, to someone like John who could have no concept of the effects of modern technology.
As for the image of the sun being darkened and the moon turning into blood, consider the following: Scientists tell us that after a massive nuclear attack we would find a massive radioactive cloud cover spreading over the earth roughly on the latitudinal lines of the detonations. This would blot out sunlight significantly for as long as it took the radioactive dust to settle, which would bring on the so-called "nuclear winter" effect. The image of the moon turning to blood could mean turning into a blood-red color. Another account describes this as "the moon will not shed it's light". Could this mean that the light flash of the nuclear detonations, on the night-side of the planet will flash brilliantly enough to darken all minimal sunlight on that side of the earth, simply by outshining the sunlight ( similar to that of a camera flash bulb temporarily blinding the subjects by flashing more brilliantly than the surrounding light), and causing a blood red reflection to shine off of the moon? Since the source of the moon's natural light is from the sun, this would be the moon "not shedding it's light", but that of another source. (For some alternative reasoning, check out the post titled, "Blood Moons By Gog", posted on January 17th of 2014.)
The only protection from all this would be to lock oneself inside an underground shelter until the radiation diminished...in about five hundred years! Revelation 6 describes just this in verse 15, "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him...For the great day of His wrath is come...'" Close but not quite! As far as they're concerned it is the end, though there's more for the rest of the world before Jesus' final judgment. For those in the fallout shelters, there remains the slow starvation after they run out of supplies; or if Russia's leaders have indeed planned a way to feed millions of people indefinitely, their offspring may indeed be the ones released after Jesus' thousand year reign, as Satan and his minions make one final desperate effort to overthrow Christ, before God casts them all into the lake of fire.
[Update: A recent investigative Cable T.V. show disclosed a similar massive tunneling and building project going on somewhere in the Ozark Mountains, where large caverns have already begun the work. This is on a scale so large that clearly only the Federal government could be behind it. Thank God for the Rapture, because I don't think there will be enough room for any Born-Again Christians, no matter how big they build it!!!]
But let's back up a little bit, to the beginning of what I feel is the nuclear attack on America, caused by a vengeful Russia whose leaders have just witnessed 83% of their armed forces being destroyed by God, whom they don't believe exists (so they retaliate against America, for having given Israel the arms necessary to defeat their enemies). America would have no choice but to respond with our own nuclear retaliation. But wait! Revelation 7 seems to describe something that might be God's merciful intervention in order to save those of His people who are facing certain nuclear vaporization. Could this be describing the "Rapture of the church worldwide"??? I believe so, though I'll grant that the evidence is slim. But God wants us to trust in Him by faith, and if He told us everything that will happen in the future we would just sit around and wait for Him to do it. Still, I believe He's given us enough prophecy to reason-out that what follows may well be true.
Revelation 7 opens with the vision of , "four angels...holding the four winds of the earth ( north, south, east, and west), that the wind should not blow on the earth..."
[UPDATE: 1/30/2019--
An alternative thought, that might explain the above description: Perhaps the reason that America does not seem to respond to the invasion of Israel, our best ally in the Middle-East, might be because Russia may have blasted an atomic missile at a high altitude over the U.S., creating an E.M.T. pulse that is powerful enough to "fry" our entire electric grid. maybe even long enough that we can not communicate with our armed forces worldwide, leaving Israel to go it alone (except for God!). This might be Russia's way of keeping us from helping Israel, and they probably feel that Israel couldn't defeat them alone. Guess again folks!!!
Perhaps the entire "Gog/Magog" war is finished before we recover enough to retaliate. If we could conclusively prove that it was Russia that did it, a nuclear retaliation might be plausible! Then perhaps China might retaliate against us, not because they care about Russia, but because they would remain the only great power in the world! That might explain the wind being stopped briefly; as the earth rotates from east to west, creating the flow of wind predominately moving west to east. Perhaps a nuclear attack from the east (China) might be enough to cause the earth's rotation to pause, when the missiles explode on America. That doesn't worry me because I expect to be raptured before this!!!]
"...Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." After this the angels seal twelve thousand servants of God from each of the twelve tribes of Israel ( sorry Jehovah's Witnesses, this does not mean you; only God knows who they are), followed in Revelation 8:7 by the releasing of "hail and fire mingled with blood" ( the nuclear detonations?). These are to be God's witnesses in the seven year tribulation. But what's interesting is what is not said here. First, why are there only 144,000 of God's servants that are so protected. Perhaps because the Church has just been raptured and doesn't need earthly protection? If so, these would not be 144,000 additional witnesses along with the whole body of Christ on Earth, because the Church would no longer be on Earth! Therefore these 144,000 may be the only witnesses God has left on Earth, a time when His ultimate judgment is coming soon, hense the necessity for them to be protected by the seals in their foreheads. Or, they may be the only witnesses left whom God will protect from the horrible fate of being a believer in the days of the Great Tribulation, when believing will apparently cause one to lose his head, literally! There might be many others who heard the Gospel and almost believed it, but did not act upon it until the undeniable proof of Christ's Rapture of His Church convinced them. At that point, they could still become Born-Again believers, but the Rapture would not be available for them, nor would they be protected with the 144,000 on Mount Zion. Their fate would be unbelievable persecution, and eventually death ( by starvation, murder, or arrest and beheading, as described in the "fifth seal" of Revelation 6: 9 through 11).
Does the image of the angels holding back the wind really mean that the earth is being held still of it's rotation while these servants are being sealed? Remember, angels are eternal beings that God occasionally sends back to earth to perform some heavenly mission, meaning that they can move freely between Eternity, and Time. So, it's entirely possible that this sealing of the servants will take place in an instant too brief to be measured by earthly time. In other words the angels are given the power to freeze time briefly, until these servants are sealed. If so, what else could happen in that moment that God simply chose not to mention because He wants us to reason scripturally that this sealing would not be necessary as long as the Church is on the earth. Plus, these servants are Israelites, who probably were not convinced that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, or the Son of God, until they witness "the sign of His (Jesus') coming". I am convinced that the "Rapture" is the "SIGN of the Son Of Man coming in the clouds", (specifically, that "SIGN" will be the complete and instantaneous disappearance of all the born-again Christians of the world, in the "twinkling of an eye") rather than the actual sighting of Him returning, since there is no mention of Jesus touching down on earth, as is the case in Zechariah 14: 4, which precipitates Armageddon's conclusion. The very fact that all the known born-again believers have just disappeared, and only those who are known believers are gone, would certainly shock the rest of the world. And they would be forced to accept that there was only one possible explanation for it, the "SIGN of His coming", which many of them would have heard about, without believing it was true. ( They might well have preferred to believe the Hollywood perception that the apocalypse was survivable on earth, but only for those who are expert at slaughtering all the Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, and all the other goolies, and goblins, who have invaded Earth, in order to take the Christians back to Mars to cannibalize for food). But after the Rapture they would "see" Jesus, in that His rapture of believers was the only logical explanation; not necessarily actually seeing Him coming ( but mentally envisioning it, and understanding it to be true).
Of course, my best guess here doesn't have to be correct. Jesus may well be literally "seen" in the clouds, it just doesn't say that He actually lands on Earth at this time.
So, it seems logical to me that the Gog/Magog war precedes the seven year tribulation which culminates in Armageddon. Further evidence of this can be construed from Ezekiel 39:9 and 10, where God says that after the war is over the Isrealites will gather all the weapons of the enemy (which seem to be flammable, as in certain forms of hyper-pressurized composite wood, that is stronger and more flexible than steel) and will burn them for fuel for seven years. After Jesus sets up His kingdom of heaven on earth following Armageddon, there will be no need for fuel as Jesus will shelter us all from excessive heat (and by logical inference, from cold as well). (See Revelation 7:16). And since they will collect these weapons, and use them for fuel for seven years, this could mean that the Gog/Magog war and the final battle of Armageddon might be separated exactly by the seven-year Tribulation period before Jesus returns.
What do you think of my Biblical reasoning; does it sound plausible, or lunatic?
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