ARE WE ON THE BRINK OF WORLD WAR 3?

ARE WE ON THE BRINK OF WORLD WAR 3?

If you watch the news on a regular basis, you will know that the “ring of fire” of Israel’s enemies is developing fast. First, it was Hamas, then the Houthis from Yemen, Hezbollah, with threats and missiles also from Syria and Iran. The alliance of Ps 83 is forming: “For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee…”

The main players behind the scenes have been Iran, Turkey and Russia, who have all lately renewed their allegiances to each other. And they all hate Israel either for religious reasons (radical Islam against the Jews), or for strategic reasons (massive commercial gas). Israel used to import gas elsewhere. Russia was and is still the big gas supplier- also to European countries, despite their war against Ukraine. Now Israel’s discovery of up to 15 billion cubic metres of natural gas- potentially serving all Europe’s energy needs- has become a threat to Russian dominance in this sphere. And energy is huge. Nobody can survive in extreme winter weather, and of course, cars and many other household and industrial items need gas. 1

While these events are certainly alarming, they also highlight how we are drawing closer to the Rapture- when Jesus will fetch His bride and meet us in the clouds.
No one can deny any longer that these events mirror Biblical end-time prophecies- it can no longer be purely incidental, and neither is it likely to be simply part of a cycle where things will return to “normal” again. Technology seems already too advanced to say we are just going through a cyclic phase.

I listened to a very interesting perspective by prof. Fred Markert, a born-again global strategist and History professor at Highlands College. I have a Masters in History, so it made me prick up my ears. He explained how one can look at these end-time events from a Geopolitical and Sociological perspective. To that, we will add the Scriptural perspective, and you’ll notice how they all come together.

At the core of these perspectives is the truth of Prov 14:34 “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” If a nation serves God and act righteously, it prospers, but if it becomes lazy, sinful, proud and arrogant, God pours out his wrath on it.” This happens time and time again. As a nation wins a war, it is usually often quite righteous at the beginning, but soon becomes proud, sinful and arrogant. And that’s when the phase changes.

Seen from a Geopolitical perspective:
According to prof Markert world history has recorded 26 completed cycles of repeat events. We are now in the 27th cycle. Each cycle has three phases: It starts as a multi-polar world (many countries dominate areas around the globe). Due to wars against each other, this eventually gets reduced to a bipolar phase (two countries or regional blocks dominate the globe). These two eventually start a massive war against one another, which leaves the winner in a unipolar phase. The winner is usually the one that is least proud, sinful and arrogant.

MULTI-POLAR PHASE: For example, in the days of colonialism Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, the Netherlands etc. all colonised certain parts of the world. They claimed new territory, started an outpost and developed that land. Jan van Riebeeck coming to the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 comes to mind here.

BIPOLAR PHASE: Wars developed between these countries, and eventually it was basically Britain and France who controlled most colonies. Then Napoleon lost the war against Britain at the Battle of Waterloo.

UNIPOLAR PHASE: Britain was the winner. The British Empire was so vast that there was always daylight somewhere within its territories. The phrase, “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” was used to describe the extent of the British Empire’s global reach at its height during the 19th and early 20th centuries. At first, Britain prospered. War ceased, so their money no longer went to tanks and wars, but to build schools, hospitals, roads etc. But, Britain lost its moral compass, not distinguishing between right and wrong, becoming liberal and proud. God poured out his wrath and the result was Britain losing many of its territories, and then came WW1.

The result of WW1 (1914-1918) was back to a multi-polar phase, with many countries having some dominance in their regions. After WW1 we had the Great Depression of the 1930s followed by WW2 (1939-1945). And we know what happened.

The Second World War ended with another BIPOLAR PHASE: USA (West Block) vs. the USSR (East Block). Then the block most immoral, sinful and proud (the USSR) lost with the collapse of Communism in 1992.

Thus the USA dominated the world in a UNIPOLAR PHASE. In the last 30 years of American dominance extreme poverty in the world dropped from 52% to 9%. The Lord blessed America because of what we would call a Liberal, Democratic, Judea-Christian base world order.

Until now, says prof. Markert. The US has just swung over to the more immoral and proud side.
Just one example- its military is now more obsessed with transgender rights, the effect of climate change and such non-military things, that its military power weakened tremendously. The last straw for many was the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, not having reached its military objectives, and leaving many to fend for themselves.

The next thing to happen is another war. The BRICKS+ countries have been building an anti-American block that is challenging American dominance in the world. Soon these two must, if one simply follows geopolitical cycles, face one another in another massive world war.

Seen from a Sociological perspective:
Prof. Markert says that every society goes through a cycle every +- 100 years. A country has its heydays for the first +-20 years. The next 20 years is a time of awakening (good or bad), the next 20 years a time of unravelling, the following 20 years a time of crisis, and the last 20 years a time of trouble- the time of crisis usually escalates into a world war.

For example: It was America’s heyday in 1945 when they won World War 2. There were celebrations and prosperity. Money was spent on developing the Western world. Then about 20 years later, in the mid-1960s, we had a great awakening. It was the hippie era, where immorality and free love were advocated. But at the same time, there were the Jesus People- where thousands of young people came to serve the Lord; and from these Jesus People, many charismatic churches were formed who, at least at the beginning, were sound or fairly sound in their beliefs. So there was a secular awakening and a religious awakening. If the religious awakening is stronger than the secular, God blesses the nation and it prospers. And the other way around. In this case, the secular awakening was stronger than the religious one, and slowly but surely, America started slipping into laziness, pride, immorality and sin. This then led to an unravelling. Twenty years after the Jesus People, i.e. in 1986 divorces sky-rocketed, drug and alcohol abuse was at an all-time high, and educational standards declined. About twenty years later, in 2008/2009 a financial crisis hit the world- starting with the dollar. Twenty years later brings us to a crisis. Thus prof. Markert predicts with certainty a world war before or by the year 2029.

Seen from a Scriptural perspective:
The end-times began when Israel became a nation in May 1948. In Matt 24:34 Jesus said “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Jesus was talking about “these things” that he told the disciples about that dealt with the end times.

Psalm 90:10 tells us that a generation is 70 or 80 years: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
We believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, so a literal 70 to 80 years will take us to 2018 to 2028. When the new nation Israel was born she flourished. In 1967 she almost miraculously won the Seven Day War, beating all the surrounding Islamic nations, and had a reunification of Jerusalem.

But Jesus said that in the end, it will be like birth pains. Matt 24:8 “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Other translations say “birth-pains” – like a woman in labour whose contractions have shorter and shorter pauses in between each other. It will be “as the days of Noah were” Matt 24:37- sin and evil will triumph until God’s judgement comes.
Most people ignore the signs of the times. It’s called “normality bias”- they don’t understand that things are about to crash, so they carry on as normal.

But to the geopolitical leaders of the Eastern block, it is a Testing Phase. Lenin said “Put a bayonet into your enemy. If you find mush, keep going. If you find steel, withdraw.”

Most people regard Donald Trump as one who would, despite all his sins and faults, stand up for righteousness and “make America great again.” Prof Markert said that leaders such as Putin and Xi Jinping fear Trump. And if Trump had to become president again in November 2024, they would have missed their last window of opportunity against America.
Like kids testing to see how far they can push their parents, the East Block is pushing the West. Russia, Iran and China are in cahoots. Russia said- we’ll test the West by invading the Ukraine. What did they find when they started pushing? They found mush, so pushed further. Iran then said they’ll test the US response by orchestrating the Hamas attack. What did they find? Mush. Only now America is sending one or two battleships to the Mediterranean. China is next. They will test the West’s response by invading Taiwan. Taiwan is the crown jewel. The country produces 90% of the world’s microchips- chips that are being used in nuclear weapons, and computers and will be used in the Mark of the Beast system of implants under the skin. If China can control this industry it will weaken the West dramatically. They will not be able to service or maintain their nuclear arsenals without microchips. They can effectively shut down America’s nuclear capabilities and aircraft carriers.

When one considers all three perspectives: the geopolitical perspective, the sociological perspective and the scriptural perspective, it comes together in one conclusion- another major world war is at hand. It will not be World War 3 though. World War 3 is where the whole world stands up against Israel- which climaxes at the end of the 7-year Tribulation period with the Battle of Armageddon. The Bible predicts the next major war will be the Gog-Magog War (which will be a regional war with some of the world’s countries involved). This will centre in and around Israel, where Russia, Iran and Turkey will come ”from thy place out of the north parts,” and where other countries such as South Africa (who is now clearly on Russia’s side), Sudan and Ethiopia, may send troops or military hardware “thou, and many people with thee.” (Ez 38:15).

Every war ends with a peace treaty, and, since the Gog-Magog war ends with Israel winning and taking 7 years to clean up after the war (Ez 39:9-10), it can well coincide with the 7 years of the Great Tribulation, and it could be this peace treaty that will be arranged by the Antichrist. (Dan 9:27).

The Rapture happens before the peace treaty. It is imminent, nothing has to happen before Jesus comes back, but we know it must happen before the Gog-Magog war ends. Which makes it a very urgent time we live in. We have little time left to live for Jesus and tell others about Him!