Armageddon For Beginners, Dave Mckay [reading books for 7 year olds TXT] 📗

the sea, with ash and smoke blowing around the world and making the sun appear to be red in the middle of the day. Mass executions by men like Hitler and Stalin represent the Great Tribulation, they say. And so on, with other incidents throughout history.

But all of these theories lack the cohesiveness that the original prophecies possessed. They were not a list of isolated events which may or may not happen at any old time. They were part of a very specific description of a very specific period of time immediately prior to the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Measurements are given for that period of time (in days, months, and years), and they all add up to three and a half years. While it is true that people have faced great troubles of one sort or another throughout history, and while it is true that The Revelation offers hope to all people in all ages, we still believe that anyone who takes seriously what it is actually saying, must agree that it ultimately refers to specific events which are related to each other over a specified period of time, and that these events have not as yet happened.

There is another group of people who agree with us about The Revelation predicting things which are yet to come; but they feel that the symbols relate to other groups and other individuals than what we have stated (e.g. the European Union rather than the United Nations, or the Pope instead of a political leader). We do not have serious problems with these contradictions, for we feel that there is some truth in most of them. What each of us is saying is that there is a steady movement toward a single world power, which will eventually be used by the Devil to persecute God's people.

Unless each of us keeps an open mind as things progress, however, we could still become blinded by our various theories, and miss out on the truth of what is actually happening. As we have already stated with regard to extreme right-wing supporters in Australia, people subscribing to conspiracy theories have often taken it upon themselves to mount political campaigns against those whom they consider to be antichrists, and in doing so, they have run the risk of becoming antichrists themselves. It is this tendency which has given the subject of endtime prophecy such a bad name to begin with.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church is probably the biggest organisation preaching Bible prophecy today. They see almost everything in the Bible as a warning against Catholicism, with one reference (i.e. the False Prophet) to Protestantism.

For years they have taught that Sunday worship is the Mark of the Beast, and that all people need do is to worship on Saturday (and presumably refrain from any sort of worship on Sunday) to be right. This approach has blinded many of them to the same sins in their own organisation that have been the sources of spiritual error in the others.

But apart from the general differences between our approach and other approaches, there are also specific weak points in our theory which need to be addressed.

The first weak point is that we have been talking about "world" empires as though Africa, Australia, South America, and much of Asia did not exist at the time of the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires. The reason for that is that the Bible is written from the perspective of the Middle East being the center of the world. (It certainly was the crossroads of world trade at the time of Christ.) The Bible more or less assumes that whoever controls the Middle East controls the world. Although world trade is no longer controlled by caravan routes through the Middle East, or even by the Suez Canal, it is interesting that the Middle East continues to play such an important role in world politics today.

We accept that no previous empire has ever contolled every country in the world. But we are suggesting that the final world empire will exercise control over the entire planet. And the final empire is the one that is most important in today's world. It may be that there are similar prophecies which originated from other continents; if so, that would make an interesting study in itself. But our emphasis has been on the tradition into which Jesus Christ was born. We believe that the prophecies are valid and consistent within that context.

We must confess that there is one prophecy which does not fit well with our theory about the various nations on the U.N. Security Council. It is one part of the prophecy which refer to the Antichrist "subduing" three kings (or horns). It sounds like the three kings that are subdued are part of a body which contains only ten members (Daniel 7:8). You get a picture of seven (or perhaps nine, if only America is destroyed) "horns" being left when the action has been completed.

In a confessed effort to make our theory fit the present make-up of the Security Council (which has 15 members) we have argued that the Antichrist government may use support from the ten rotating members to subdue three of the five permanent members (rather than three of the ten rotating members), after which the Antichrist will be able to control all ten rotating members.

This is totally consistent with Revelation 17:16, where all ten "horns" are described as helping the Beast to destroy some other power. Even passages like Daniel 7:24 are written in such a way as to indicate that the three kings (or kingdoms) which are subdued may be quite separate from the ten kings described earlier.

However, we have also taken licence in (a) referring to the animal described as a "leopard" in the Bible as a "panther"; (b) attributing the Panther to the Third World as a whole; and (c) referring to rotating members of the United Nations Security Council as all being Third World members.

A panther is a variety of leopard, i.e. a black leopard. But when most people think of a leopard, they think of the spotted leopard. (See Jeremiah 13:23.) The argument is not that I have substituted a different animal for the one described, but rather that I have limited the description to a particular variety, i.e. the black leopard. And that brings us to the second criticism mentioned above:

I have taken the liberty of using the panther (or leopard) as a symbol for the Third World. There really is no official animal that represents the Third World. I have suggested the panther because it is the official symbol of the Black Power movement. Black Power has universal appeal to people with dark skin. Of course the Third World includes people with yellow and red skin too; but they share a common problem with low self-esteem, which the Black Power movement addresses. A leopard is a broader description of the same animal that has been adopted by Black militants, and might be more appropriate, because the species includes cats of other colours besides black. Nevertheless, the fact that the Leopard is not an official symbol of the Third World still remains a valid argument against my theory.

Finally, there is the argument that not all of the countries which are eligible for periodic seats on the United Nations Security Council could be officially described as "third world". Europe as a whole is traditionally divided between East and West, i.e. between the First World and the Second World superpowers.

But I only use the term "third world" in an effort to show that the world today recognises three major divisions. The definition for those divisions need not be the same as the prophetic definition. Actually, without Russia or America supporting them, the various countries of Europe become about as powerless as those nations which we now call "The Third World" anyway. Give India nuclear power, and take away the superpowers, and it becomes difficult to say that Luxemburg or Albania possess more power than India.

So what we have (if the United Nations Security Council is the body referred to in this prophecy) is a leopard representing all those countries of the United Nations besides those represented by the Eagle, the Lion, the Dragon, the Bear, and one other country which will eventually be subdued (i.e. France). The Leopard is not the official symbol for those countries today; but neither is there any other symbol which necessarily contradicts this theory. It could be that a leopard may eventually be adopted as such a symbol, if and when such a body of nations becomes a recognisable force in the world.

Then there is France, the fifth permanent member of the Security Council. The symbol for France is the Rooster. We find no mention of a rooster or cock in any prophecies. But then almost nothing is said about the third nation that is subdued anyway. Let's face it; the United Kingdom's power and the United Kingdom's presence on the Security Council are primarily because of its special relationship with America. France, too, is not there because it is in the same league with America or Russia. France represents a pro-West vote and little more. And France's significance will certainly be "subdued" if/when America falls, and Russia takes over.

Recall what Daniel said about the Lion in his vision: "I beheld till the [eagle's] wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon its feet as a man." (Daniel 7:4) In other words, when America has been destroyed, the United Kingdom will cease to be a kingdom. The Brits (and we Aussies too) will just be loyal subjects of the new Emperor.

But hold on a minute! Look again at the Leopard in Daniel's vision. What is that on the Leopard's back? The "wings of a fowl"! (Daniel 7:6) So France gets a mention after all. But the mention is only that France, like Australia, and all the rest of the world, will just be an appendage on the back of the Leopard after "dominion" has been given to it. We will be lucky to get our turn in the rotating ten nations on the Security Council.

There are any number of other complaints that people can make about the theories presented in this book. But the bottom line is that what we have said here is an honest attempt to understand exactly what Bible prophecy is saying. Honesty will lead more reliably and more consistently to the truth in Bible prophecy than anything else.

We are open, and, indeed, keen to hear of information which corrects errors in our interpretation. And we believe that it is our openness which has led us to our present level of understanding. It is likely that our interpretation will alter somewhat in the next few years, as things become clearer. Our commitment is not to a theory, nor to gimmicks and sensations, but rather to an honest understanding of how God sees things in the world today. If others with a different perspective share the same commitment, then we should all move closer together as circumstances unfold in the years ahead.

After giving a brief outline (in the next few pages) of events we have described so far, we will move on, in chapter 25, to a study of the period known as The Wrath, when the Seven Vials will be poured out on the earth. Because this part of the prophecy takes place after the return of Christ, we feel less need to have perfect understanding of it, and so we will only touch on it briefly. Nevertheless, the spiritual significance of what happens at that time is still worth mentioning.

Appendix, Chapter 23

Daniel 7:8, 24. There came up among [the ten horns] another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots… The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that will arise. Another will rise after them, and he will be diverse