Wars and Rumors of Wars

When the disciples asked Jesus when He was coming back and what would be the signs pointing to His imminent return, He said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” (Mt 24:6)

Then why did He bother to even mention it if we’re not to be worried about wars and rumors of wars? Why bother to include it in the list of birth pains if it’s not, in fact, a warning sign?

Hmmm.

1. Could it be that He is making sure that we don’t panic about every war as heralding the Second Coming?
2. Could it be that the wars’ warning must be combined with the convergence of many other warning signs in order to be taken seriously?
3. Could it be, since it’s included in the list of signs, that we are to look for above usual activity in the number of wars and rumors of wars?
4. Could it be that only certain wars are to be taken as signs pointing to Daniel’s 70^th Week, the Tribulation ending in His Second Coming?

Let’s look at those possibilities and see what may be discernable:

1. Obviously not every war heralds His Second Coming or He would have been here by now.
2. Certainly we are seeing a convergence of the other signs at this time – cultural, moral, environmental, economic, religious, military, technological – so it might very well make sense to pay attention to what wars and rumors of wars are happening right now.
3. Is there above normal war-like activity going on right now? Absolutely. In addition to out-and-out armed conflict wars, we have cold wars, cyber wars, propaganda wars, economic wars, chemical wars, biological wars and the threatening of wars (rumors of war). As reported in the UK publication, Independent, “Of the 162 countries covered by the Institute for Economics and Peace in a 2014 study, only 11 were not involved in conflict of one kind or another. Worse yet, the world as a whole has been getting incrementally less peaceful every year since 2007 – sharply bucking a trend that had seen a global move away from conflict since the end of WW II. And it’s only going to get worse.” What about rumors of war? Remember Israel and the Philistines prior to David showing up to take down Goliath? (1 Samuel 17) The two armies stood across from each other yelling insults and threats. Referred to as the Sticks and Stones War, this was literally repeated in June when China and India stood across from each other on the poorly defined border in the Galwan River valley insulting each other and then engaging in combat using sticks and fists. The more I read the Bible, along with the newspaper, the more convinced I am that Old Testament history is or will be repeated near the period of the end times. “What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
4. If only certain wars are to be factored in, most likely those are the wars that include Israel because it is Israel that’s the focus of the end times. Since the country was founded in 1948, Israel has been in 8 “official” wars, two Palestinian intifadas (uprisings), and a handful of cross-border skirmishes. Against all odds they have prevailed in all of them. And the odds were hugely stacked against them. Hugely. They were seriously out manned, out armed, out supported and yet they won. I don’t know what conclusion one could reach other than that God was on their side as promised. (Is 41:12-14; Zech 12:6)

There are still several Israel connected wars prophesized in the Bible. There is the Psalm 83 war, the war of Gog-Magog, the war involving the Kings of the East, and the battle of Armageddon. The first two above wars are likely to occur very soon with implications for the whole world. Both should be added to the Watchmen on the Wall’s list of Why Now because neither of them could possibly have happened even a decade ago due to geopolitical alignments, also because global tensions are at a point where it is more than conceivable that these blowups are just around the corner.

Please, neither offhandedly accept nor reject what is said in this blog. Check it out. Look it up for yourself in the Bible. If you are a child of God, you are in good hands and there is the most wonderful eternity waiting for you. If you are not a Christ follower, now is a really good time to honestly explore the truth claims of the Bible.

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