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Why The Return Of

Jesus Christ May Be Near

 

Part 3
 

Signs in the Geo-Political World

and in

Technological Development

 

By
 
R.A. Coombes

Author of
“America, The Babylon: Vols 1 & 2”
and Publisher of
The Alpha-Omega Report
aoreport.com

 

We’ve noted in Part 2 that Israel’s restoration to the land and regaining control over all of Jerusalem was a Trigger Sign that started the prophetic time clock to ticking. The generation which witnessed this Trigger Sign(s)
will not die out until at least after The Second Coming of Jesus Christ. What other signs can we look for, indicating near fulfillment?

To answer this question we’ll break down such indications into two distinctly different groups.

#1. Human developments – such as in technology and geo-politics.

#2. Natural developments – indications from creation and nature.

This particular article is Part 3 and will look at the first group only in this article. In Part 4, we’ll examine the natural signs of creation indicating fulfillment is occurring or near to occurring or not yet showing indications.

To begin this section, we’ll first look at geo-political developments.

Revelation 13 predicts the rise of a global world dictator and an associate who will provide direction for religious worship towards the global dictator. The fact of the matter is that this global dictator will have or be in charge of a global government. So the question we need to ask is:

Do we see any indications or preparations for a global government in the near future? The answer is most assuredly, “yes.”

#1. SIGNS OF A GLOBAL GOVERNMENT INFRASTRUCTURE:

First of all, we have in place a form of global government which is called “The United Nations.” At the moment, it does not have much global power. Why? There are two essential reasons for its lack of power.

#1. It has no standing military forces. It only has troops provided “on loan” by various member nations. These troops are only permitted to have a peace-keeping role, although, during the Korean war, various Allied nations massed under the UN banner to halt a war being waged by the nation known as North Korea. Other than this one instance, the UN has not had troops engaged in a combat role – merely peace-keeping observers.

Without a standing military, the UN is powerless to inflict it’s will upon the nations of the world.

Much of the reason why the UN does not have a standing army is because the UN cannot afford to hire soldiers nor can it conscript soldiers. This leads us to the second reason why the UN lacks power.

#2. The UN has no ability to tax and collect financial resources. Yes, the UN does require members to pay dues, but the dues are simply to pay for primarily the costs of maintaining the structure of the UN and a few humanitarian projects, such as combating hunger and disease.

These are the two primary reasons why the UN has little power or impact on world events.

There are lesser reasons of course.

A. Member nations refuse to surrender their total sovereignty to the UN.

B. Member nations have a hard time agreeing on much of anything. The members certainly cannot totally agree on anything deemed controversial.

C. Cultural diversity prevents unity and of course disagreements.

D. It has no dynamic leadership, nor a single office with the ability to give significant power to a single leader.

These four aspects are however slowly being addressed quietly, behind closed doors. So too are the primary two issues – taxes and a military.

There are proposals that have been tendered and are languishing in the UN General Assembly committees seeking a mandate for both taxation capabilities for all human citizens of the member nations and for the creation of a standing military to be paid for by new taxing revenues.

There are also similar efforts to require nations to surrender their sovereignty over various issues in incremental phases. The first phase would be in regards to planetary natural resources such as water, air and land use. This is part of the Kyoto protocols which many nations have agreed to – but not the United States. As for cultural issues, the UN has been busy developing various cultural programs to create a one-world culture including a one-world religion. This is in association with the World Council of Churches and has been an ongoing process for the past 50 years.

Efforts to provide greater powers for the position of the UN Secretary-General are still languishing in proposal form and have been for many years. There has not been much of a push for this, primarily due to the lack of a dynamic personality to step forward and assume the role as a singular, charismatic world leader.

Proponents of the New World Order are simply awaiting the arrival of their “messiah” to come upon the scene and win over the hearts and minds of the world’s population and thus give ‘him’ the powers as dictator. In other words – they’re waiting on the arrival of Satan’s “antichrist.”

So, much of the infrastructure for a world government is in place, but remains in a state of ‘limbo’ – waiting for a confluence of events to develop that will allow all of these aspects to come together to fulfill Revelation 13 and the predictions of a global government and world dictator.

 

#2. The 6-6-6 Factor: The Mark of the Beast

Many people do not yet realize it, but technology has advanced so far in our “digital world” that it is now technically feasible for the fulfillment of Revelation 13: 16-18:

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

“And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”

 
This “mark of the beast” is some sort of system that restricts commerce globally. Verse 17 tells us that no one can buy or sell anything unless he has this “mark.”

The term “mark” in the original Greek language is the word “charagma.”  (Strong’s Concordance Reference #5480)

It means “to etch, to engrave. It was used as a term for the action of branding ownership of a horse or livestock. It was also used to describe an artist sculpting a statue or to engrave something into metal or stone or to draw a likeness of something. Often it was related to carving statues of idols. The root concept though is the act of ‘etching’ or ‘engraving.’

Until recent years, most prophecy commentators assumed this was likely referring to something like a tattoo or a branding of some sort, perhaps with a hot iron. Technology though has developed something so unique that there was no word 2000 years ago adequate to describe this technological advancement. I am referring to the computer chip.

Computer chips are “etched” or ‘engraved’ electrical circuits which store huge amounts of digital data and information. This technology is the heart of our computer technology. In the past 20 years, the computer chip industry has been working to develop a microscopic computer chip which has radio transmission capabilities with which to be tracked by other computer chips.

Real technological breakthroughs in this field have come in the past five years. In fact, most readers of this article probably have some of these new computer chips embedded in various consumer products in their home and I don’t just mean in their computers or cell phones or automobiles.

Walmart and other retailers have teamed with various consumer manufacturers to embed what are called RFID computer chips into many consumer products ranging from food packaging to clothing as well as electronic applications. These new chips have radio transmitters that can be read by scanners – and this enables tremendous breakthroughs in inventory control and management. Already, the systems are being set up so that shoppers with a matching credit card with an RFID chip could simply breeze out of the store without even stopping at a check out counter to pay for the items. Payment can be done electronically by RFID signals reading the shopper’s credit card while still in a wallet or purse and the scanner reads all of the RFID tags in the shoppers shopping cart.

Furthermore, in the past 3 years, these RFID chips have been engineered to be implanted into a human being’s hand, arm, leg or forehead. Such a chip would be unique to that person and would function as both identification and as a credit/debit payment system using electronic or digital money.

The banking community and the multinational merchants and manufacturers have been developing plans for implementation of this new technology worldwide for every human being. It would replace the idea of paper or metal money. It would eliminate identification fraud and severely restrict the anonymity of terrorists. It would also mean that every human being around the world could be tracked every moment by satellites orbiting above earth, tracking the movements of these implanted RFID chips.

However, there is one hold up in all of these plans. There are not enough of these computer chips being produced yet for every human being, although within a year or so, this problem will disappear. There is still further testing to be done for health considerations, but for the most part, the world’s bankers, and commerce system has nearly everything in place to introduce this system on a massive scale, worldwide. From all the reports I’ve read, the remaining details should all be worked out within the next two years – by 2010. The only real problem left to overcome is human resistance or human opinion rejecting the concept.

A collapse of the world’s current banking system however would likely reduce resistance quickly, once people begin to starve and or are unable to work without such technology due to newly passed laws, which would likely be enacted by the decree of the Antichrist and his False Prophet – thus fulfilling Revelation 13: 16-18.

So, here we find ourselves on the edge of being able to see this prophecy fulfilled within a very short time frame, within the next year or two.

There is something that readers should realize about this prophecy. The text does not give us a time point on the prophetic time line for its implementation other than it develops at some point during the time that the Antichrist is in power. It may be that this decree takes place after the Antichrist has been in power for two, three or more years. Some prophecy commentators suspect it will occur at the midway point of his reign or at the three and a half year mark of his rise to power. So, if the Antichrist were to come into power tomorrow, it does not mean that immediately we would expect to see the 6-6-6 mark of the beast law being implemented. It may well come at a later point in time.

Now of course, there are other aspects of this prophecy that could be brought forward but our purpose here is to simply note the feasibility factor and nothing more as indicating a SIGN of near-fulfillment is possible.

Let’s shift gears now, away from global government and the 6-6-6 factor and turn to nationalities and empires.

#3. The MAGOG FACTOR

In the prophetic book of Ezekiel, the Prophet reveals that in the last days of the Gentile era, before the Return of Christ, a group of nations will attempt to invade Israel via it’s northern border with the idea of wiping Israel off the map. We find this prophecy in the book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39.

The prophecy lists various nations involved in this military campaign against Israel.

The nation that will be at the forefront of this military campaign is called “Magog.” It’s leader is referred to as “Gog.”  Many prophecy commentators mistakenly refer to this prophecy as the “Gog-Magog War” or the “Gog-Magog Invasion.”  The more appropriate title would eliminate “Gog” to lessen the confusion that “Gog” might be thought of as another nation.

Now of course, there has been a raging debate among prophecy scholars in attempting to identify which nation is Magog. Until 1945, most prophecy scholars down through the centuries, (including Jewish rabbis) believed that Magog was the nation we now call Turkey. After World War 2, some prophecy scholars, notably, Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost proposed an alternate theory that Magog was actually the Soviet Union. That theory was taught in many conservative seminaries (including Dallas Theological Seminary) for a number of years. It gained worldwide notoriety though when popular prophecy author, Hal Lindsey popularized the theory in his best-selling prophecy book, “The Late Great Planet Earth” which came out in 1970. He continued to promote the theory in subsequent follow up books and other authors soon followed suit.

The Pentecost/Lindsey theory remained the dominant view among Evangelical prophecy scholars until 1989/90 when the Soviet Union began to collapse. Since then, the older view that Turkey is Magog has come back into the debate, while the Pentecost/Lindsey view has been modified to assert Magog as being Russia.

No matter which theory is correct, both nations are playing key roles in Middle East geo-politics as I write this article. Yes, for the moment, it seems that Turkey is not inclined to wish to attack Israel, but this is due to an old, secular military leadership that is slowly being replaced by radical Muslim officers who tend to sympathize with Islamic radicals in Iran and Saudi Arabia (and also Al Qaeda and the Taliban). Turkey is teetering on the political brink of becoming a radical Muslim nation. It’s political leadership is already embracing radical Islam, but is held in check by a secular Turkish constitution which forbids a move to Islam becoming the state religion. It is possible that on any given morning we could awaken to news of a coup by radical Islamists taking control of Turkey’s military and instantly becoming Israel’s number one enemy.

On the flip side, Russia has been playing footsie with both Iran and Syria and may be assisting Iran and Syria with the development of nuclear weapons. So, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Russia could be the Magog that Ezekiel’s prophecy deals with.

Another nation in the Ezekiel prophecy of a Magog alliance of nations is Iran, also known as Persia and or also in scripture as “The Medes.”

The Magog prophecy also names other Islamic nations such as Libya, Ethiopia, Gomer and Togarmah.

The latter two names, according to most scholars are believed to be eastern and northern area of Turkey. Libya needs no explanation, just remember Moammar Ghaddafy. Ethiopia is in the midst of a civil war and radical Muslims would like to gain total control of that nation although some believe that the term should be more appropriately applied to the Sudan and or neighboring Somalia, both of which were once part of Ethiopia but split off. Those two nations are in the grip of Islamic fundamentalists.

Oddly enough, Syria is never mentioned in the Ezekiel prophecy, but understand that Isaiah 17 indicates that at some unknown point of time, Syria is suddenly wiped out and Damascus is wiped off the face of the Earth, never to be inhabited again. This may indicate that Syria is wiped out prior to the Magog invasion campaign.

Now when is the Magog invasion supposed to take place? Good question. There are lots of theories, but no one really has an absolute proof for its timing. It may occur before the Antichrist comes to power, or it happens as the Antichrist comes to power or after the Antichrist has been in power for sometime. I think its safe to say that this military prophecy will take place around the time of the start of the Great Tribulation period or during that time.

We do see however, that most of the elements to put this prophetic puzzle-piece are already come together, especially with Iran’s leadership foaming at the mouth for Israel’s destruction and their seeming intent to acquire nuclear weapons and their cultivating a proxy army in Lebanon known as Hezbollah, and a southern army in Gaza known as Hamas.

 

#4. The !0 Toes Confederation of Daniel

Another prophetic puzzle-piece in the geo-political realm concerns the Prophecy of Daniel concerning the rise of a 10 member confederation which in a vision is referred to the 10 toes of a statue representing all the previous empires of the ancient world, including Babylon, Greece and Rome. In Daniel 2: 31-49.

Prophecy scholars have long thought that the prophecy concerning the 10 toes mixed with iron and clay is a reference to a revived Roman empire which was described as being part of the statue of two iron legs, indicating the split Roman empire of Rome and Constantinople.

Today, many scholars believe that the old Roman empire has been revived through the development of the EU, aka “The European Union.”
However, the EU encompasses nations that were never part of the old Roman empire and yet it doesn’t include other areas of the old Roman empire such as northern Africa, Syria, Lebanon or Turkey. However, Turkey is being considered for membership, but it’s bid for membership has been put on hold due to opposition by some EU member states who are skittish at the idea of admitting an Islamic nation into the Union.

Meanwhile, the new French President, Nicholas Sarkozy is now attempting to create a revived Roman empire union which he is calling the “Mediterranean Union” or “MU” – which he proposes to set up and will include Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and all the nations of North Africa, plus of course, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal and perhaps Britain.  If Sarkozy succeeds, I suspect such a Union would better match up to the theory that the 10 toes are the revived Roman Empire.

Another theory of the 10 toes is that it represents what is now known as the G-10 or aka the “Group of 10.”  This is a term identifying the top 10 economic national powers.

Thus, the Daniel prophetic vision is either now formed or on the verge of being formed.

#5.  The Babylon Super-Power, aka “Mystery Babylon”

Most prophecy commentators mis-understand the term of Revelation chapter 17 and verse 5 and mislabel the name as “Mystery Babylon.”
This is an incorrect reading of the original Greek grammar. The phrase in reality is that the term “mystery” is not part of the name but rather is describing the name as simply being a ‘mystery’ and indicating that it involves the “mystery” religion of Babylon’s chief goddess Ishtar.

The prophecies of Revelation chapters 17 and 18 have been the subject of hot debate for the past 20 years or so.

There are 3 main theories floating around as to the identity of this Babylon term and its association with a ‘woman” referred to as “the great harlot.

Since the Reformation, Protestants had long held the view that Revelation 17 and 18 was a reference to the Roman Catholic Church or the city of Rome or both. In the past 20 years there has been a growing realization among prophecy commentators that this is an erroneous theory. The problems and errors with this theory are perhaps best understood by reading from my book “America, The Babylon” Volume 2, chapter 2- “Why Mystery Babylon Is Not the Roman Catholic Church, or any other church.” You can read an excerpt of this chapter at this LINK HERE.  Also read an excerpt from Chapter 3 – “Why Rome Can Not be Mystery Babylon – LINK HERE.

http://americathebabylon.com/exerpts.shtml#New%20Excerpt%20#2

http://americathebabylon.com/exerpts.shtml

 

The Iraq is Babylon Theory

With the decline of the theory that the RCC or Rome is Babylon, has been the rise of the theory that Iraq is Mystery Babylon. This identity theory became very popular when Dr. Charles Dyer wrote “Babylon Rising” in 1990. This book came out just prior to the first Gulf War when Saddam Hussein made an effort to excavate the ruins of ancient Babylon as a tourist trap. His efforts were then twisted by Prophecy commentators into the notion that Saddam was going to rebuild the ruins into a the capital city of the world. Such a notion as this one was and is simply ludicrous, not to mention unbiblical. In “America, The Babylon” Volume 2 I presented 57 reasons why Iraq simply cannot be the “Mystery Babylon” of Biblical Prophecy based upon the scriptural descriptions alone and compared to reality. Since that publication, three more reasons have come to light bringing the total number of reasons why Iraq cannot be the “Mystery Babylon” to the number – 60. I’ve since written a comprehensive article on The Alpha-Omega Report website which examines all 60 reasons. You can read these reasons – LINK HERE.

https://aoreport.com/mag/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=82&Itemid=47

There are other assorted identity theories floating around such as the insane and fatally flawed notion that Jerusalem is Babylon, but there is only one other identity theory gaining any serious scholarly consideration in the past twenty years, and that is the theory that the United States is actually the “Mystery Babylon.”

My book, “America, The Babylon” was the first seriously scholastic effort presenting the theory that the “Mystery Babylon” of Biblical Prophecy is America. It is also the most exhaustive work ever written on the Babylon issue, period. The two-volume work encompasses more than 600 pages of research materials with heavy documentation and critical textual analysis of the original Hebrew and Greek texts of the prophecies themselves. Volume 2 contains hundreds of internet weblinks to empirical proofs to back up the claims that America is in fact more “Babylonian” than ancient Babylon ever was, and this is especially true of Washington, D.C.

If you’re reading this article and you’ve never read “America, The Babylon” you owe it to yourself to grab a copy of both volumes, but be prepared for a major series of shocks to your understanding of the real world around you. Both volumes are now available only in electronic text format on a single CD-Rom, along with a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation on the Visual Evidences for America, The Babylon – which is a one hour and twenty minute audio-visual slide presentation. IF you’d like to know more about this material and or to obtain a copy of the CD-Rom (which contains other E-books also) visit this page LINK HERE to learn how you can obtain a copy for free when you donate to The Alpha-Omega Report.
https://aoreport.com/donate.htm

So, the reality is this – the identity of a future Babylon, the final super-power of the end-times prior to the rise of the Antichrist – is none other than America. What is more urgent in this issue is that the prophecies indicate that while God supernaturally destroys Babylon-America (the homeland) – the nation of Iran (aka “the Medes” and also the “Aschenaz,” the “Minni” and the “Ararat” tribes – all part of modern-day Iran) will play a role in Babylon-America’s destruction.

Today, speculation is rampant around Washington and the Middle East that President Bush is contemplating the idea of ordering air and missile strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, perhaps using nuclear weapons to ensure the destruction of hardened, underground facilities. Any such attempt to destroy Iran before it has its chance to fulfill its role as an ally in the Magog invasion of Israel will result in the destruction of the United States by God, supernaturally. Why do I assert this? I say this because God will not allow His written word to be thwarted. Iran can not be destroyed until it has fulfilled its prophetic role in the Magog invasion and in playing a role during the destruction of Babylon – America. 

Should Bush make such an attempt to destroy Iran, I believe, based upon Revelation 18:4 – the Rapture of the Church will quickly ensue and then Divine wrath will fall on America, before American weapons can destroy Iran.

Now, there is a caveat to this. The operative element here revolves around the idea that President Bush would order nuclear strikes on Iran that would decimate that nation. A simple, conventional air strike on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard training base for terrorists would not constitute a threat to Iran’s future role as a participant in the Magog campaign against Israel. Thus, such a minor clash would not necessarily require God to intervene and destroy America.

It is also possible that should President Bush attempt to “nuke” Iran that if the timing is not yet right for America’s judgment, God might intervene in such a way as to prevent or to simply ‘foil’ a US military attack. He could simply strike the President down with a heart attack or a bolt of lightning for that matter, prior to his issuing orders for a nuclear attack.

My overall point though in regards to the purpose of this article is to simply point out – again – how close we may be to the fulfillment of all of these Biblical Prophecies.

We’ve now covered the primary aspects of the geo-political elements of Biblical Prophecy regarding the “End of the Gentile Era” prior to the Second Coming of Christ. I won’t bother to go into other aspects, such as Armageddon, because it is not pertinent to the purpose of this article in regards to nearness of His Return.  So, with this in mind, our next article will focus on the Signs from within Creation or “nature” which point to the nearness of His Return.

Index of Article Segments

Part 1 – Introduction – LINK 

Part 2 –THE TRIGGER SIGNS - 2 Events Started The Ticking Time Clock - LINK

Part 3 – Signs in the Geo-Political World Now Developing - LINK

Part 4 – Signs in Nature Now Developing - LIINK

Part 5 – An Overview of a Key Biblical Prophecies Awaiting Fulfillment - LINK

Part 6 – Why Believers Need To Know & Follow Prophetic Developments - LINK

FREE E-Book Download is available, too.  The Gift of Salvation – How to Have Eternal Life – LINK HERE.

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