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The Final Move Beyond Iraq
An Exclusive excerpt
By: Mike Evans
In The Final Move Beyond Iraq, Mike Evans an award-winning journalist takes an in-depth look at what he calls the greatest threat to America since the Civil War. Read an excerpt from The Final Move Beyond Iraq.
Buy the book here.
Buy the book here.
A Prophetic Storm Gathers
And then that day when we attack Israel, even the trees and the stones will have mouths. they will cry out. They will say, “There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come, O Muslim. Come, O slave of Allah. Come and kill him till not one male Jew is left.”—Walid Shoebat, former Palestinian terrorist recounting the teaching he received as a child and “terrorist-in-training” about Islamist eschatology
“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. . . . When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. . . . “Brother will betray brother to death. . . . All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”—Mark 13:4–5, 7–8, 12–13
The vast majority of students of prophecy have always believed that the end of the age would begin with a worldwide battle between Isaac, the Jew, and Ishmael, the Arab—a battle that would center on the Middle East, mainly Israel, and increase like a pandemic until it engulfed the entire globe. Only a deaf and blind man would not realize that this battle is, in fact, growing ever closer.
The apostle John received a vision on the Isle of Patmos in a.d. 95 that became the Book of Revelation. In that vision, John saw four riders on horseback galloping across the earth, bringing deceit, destruction, and devastation. Those four riders are commonly known as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” If you listen closely, you can hear the hoofbeats of those four horses across all the news channels and throughout today’s newspapers and magazines.
The Book of Revelation begins with the unveiling of a scroll written on both sides and sealed with seven seals. Seals, in that day, were impressions made with wax, clay, or some other soft material that, when broken, revealed that an unauthorized person had tampered with the contents. The seals in John’s vision had to be broken, one by one, to divulge the contents of what was inside. As John broke each seal, another portion of God’s revelation about the final days of the earth was disclosed, each time divulging a worse horror than the revelation before.
Daniel, the prophet who lived in ancient Babylon (modern-day Iraq), wrote this of the mystery of the End Times in the twelfth chapter of Daniel. It begins:
“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people— everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.” . . .I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.”
—Daniel 12:1–4, 8–10
On the Mount of Olives, Jesus’s disciples asked Him what the sign of His coming and the end of the age would be. Jesus replied:
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. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. . . . If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.
—Matthew 24:6–7, 22
As I write this, just such an apocalyptic time is threatening to arise
from three modern-day Bible nations: Iraq, which was ancient Babylonia;
Iran, which was Persia until 1935; and Israel, which was reborn in 1948 in
the very land God promised to Abraham and his descendants in the Book
of Genesis. Understanding the biblical backgrounds and cultures of these
nations and peoples can be very enlightening for the days ahead.
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