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Christian Biblical Church of God
Post Office Box 1442
Hollister, California 95024-1442
(831)-637-1875
Fred R. Coulter
Minister
January 22, 2003
Dear Brethren,
It looks like war in Iraq will soon take place. But why will it occur? Is
it because the United States needs the war to bolster the economy? Is it
because the United States will use this war as a reason to pass the laws in
Congress to allow the oil companies to drill for oil in Alaska? Is it
because the world needs the oil? How does North Korea fit into the picture?
What about China, India, Japan and all of Southeast Asia? What about Russia
and all the far east? And don't forget Afghanistan! While all of these
immediate reasons may be used to justify that war against Iraq, there are
greater prophetic reasons for these actions. As we will understand there is
a bigger overall pattern to these events than most people could imagine.
What is it?
First of all, there is undoubtedly more time in the prophetic picture from
God's perceptive than we have realized in the past. But why? Because all the
end time events are going to be of a far greater magnitude than most people
could ever fathom. The war in Iraq, as well as what has happened in
Afghanistan, is laying the foundation for the fulfilling of the prophecies
concerning all the nations that lie north and east of Jerusalem. These
nations have a geographical area of approximately one-fourth the entire
landmass of the world, and have a population of nearly four billion people.
The prophet Joel wrote of these end time events: "Proclaim ye this among the
Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war
draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your
pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, 'I am strong.' Assemble
yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round
about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the heathen
be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit
to judge all the heathen round about" (Joel 3:9-12,
KJV).
All the nations that lie to the north and east of Jerusalem, all the way to,
and including Japan, must develop economically in order to develop their war
making capabilities. This is why that after the war in Vietnam economic
development was the number one priority. The same is true of Afghanistan,
today. It will also be in Iraq after the war is over. Today, we are
assisting Pakistan economically. At the same time, India, Thailand, Burma
and all Southeast Asian nations are developing their economies as well. Look
at China! It is rapidly growing into a gigantic economic and military power,
made possible because of their increasing economic power. We need to realize
that in order to prepare for war, these nations must continue to develop
their economies and technologies to a far greater extent. By so doing, they
will have the means to increase their armies and to perfect advanced
sophisticated weapons systems. This is the greater overall picture in all of
these events that are happening, today.
Ezekiel also prophesied of all these nations by their ancient names. However,
these names refer to all the nations north and east of Jerusalem. A few of
these nations still bear the ancient names that Ezekiel was inspired to
write. Notice what he wrote:
"And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 'Son of man, set thy face
against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and
prophesy against him,' and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am
against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal [Russia and the
nations in the north that lay east of Russia]: and I will turn thee back,
and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine
army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour,
even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and
all his bands: and many people with thee. Be thou prepared, and prepare for
thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou
a guard unto them....And I will call for a sword against him throughout all
my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his
brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I
will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are
with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the
eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD" (Ezk. 38:1-7,
21-23, KJV).
Ezekiel's prophecy against these nations continues in Chapter 39: "Therefore,
thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
'Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
and I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will
cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the
mountains of Israel: and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will
cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the
mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with
thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the
beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for
I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. And I will send a fire on Magog, and
among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am
the LORD' " (Ezk. 39:1-6, KJV). Until God is fully ready, according
to His timetable, the world will experience an uneasy peace, punctuated by
periodic wars in these regions of the world. But in the mean time those
nations will be arming themselves to the teeth with the most sophisticated
weapons imaginable.
Another profound understanding about these nations and their war making
abilities is this: The Bible shows that there will be three invasions of the
Holy Land from these nations.
The First Invasion: At the time of the end, the king of the north—the
coming leader of the European nations—and his armies will invade the Holy
Land. Daniel prophesied of this: "And at the time of the end shall the king
of the south push at him [another round in the Arab/terrorists wars]: and
the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with
chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into
the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into
the glorious land [the Holy Land], and many countries shall be overthrown:
but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief
of the children of Ammon [the countries that lie just to the east and south
of Jerusalem]. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and
the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the
treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt:
and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of
the east and out of the north [Russia and all the countries to the east]
shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy,
and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his
palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to
his end, and none shall help him" (Dan. 11:40-45, KJV).
The apostle John also saw this event in vision and recorded it in the book of
Revelation. The king of the north will invade the Holy Land when Jesus
Christ opens the second seal and it will set in motion a whole chain of
events and begin to fulfill all the Bible prophecies concerning the end
time. Notice: "And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living
creature say, 'Come and see.' And another horse went out that was
red; and power was given to the one sitting on it to take peace
from the earth, and to cause them to kill one another; and a great
sword was given to him" (Rev. 6:3-4).
It is important to understand that the Great Tribulation does not begin until
the king of the north, called the Beast in Revelation 13, comes against the
king of the south. When the king of the north enters the Holy Land, he will
go into the temple in Jerusalem and proclaim himself to be God (II Thes.
2:1-12). That triggers the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:15-22). After he has
established his power in the middle east, Daniel shows that tidings out of
the east and north will trouble the king of the north. The Beast will then
launch an attack against those nations. This occurs when the fifth angel
sounds his trumpet. John wrote: "And the fifth angel sounded his
trumpet; and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth,
and there was given to it the key to the bottomless abyss. And it opened the
bottomless abyss; and there went up smoke from the pit, like the
smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke
from the pit. Then locusts came onto the earth from the smoke, and power was
given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was said to
them that they should not damage the grass of the earth, or any green thing,
or any tree, but only the men who did not have the seal of God in their
foreheads. And it was given to them that they should not kill them, but that
they should be tormented five months; and their torment was
like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man.
"And in those days men will seek death but will not find it; and they will
desire to die, but death will flee from them. And the appearance of the
locusts was like horses prepared for war, and on their heads were
crowns like those of gold; and their faces
were like the faces of men; and they had hair like women's hair;
and their teeth were like those of lions. And they had breastplates
like iron breastplates; and the sound of their wings was like the
sound of chariots drawn by many horses running to war; and they had
tails like scorpions, and stingers; and they were given power to
injure men with their tails for five months. And they have over them
a king, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but
the
name he has in Greek is Apollyon. The first woe is past. Behold, after
these things two more woes are still to come" (verses 1-11).
After the five months of torment from this scorpion-like attack is over, the
nations of the north and east will recover and retaliate in fury. They will
assemble the most massive army ever assembled in the history of mankind and
they will begin invade from the east. As we will see, there will be a series
of invasions. John recorded the magnitude of these armies and their
fantastic weapons: "And the sixth angel sounded his
trumpet; and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar that
is before God; and it said to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet,
'Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates
[modern-day Iraq].' Then the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour
and day and month and year, were loosed, so that they might kill a third of
men; and the number of the armies of the horsemen
was two hundred thousand thousand
[two hundred million]: and I heard the number of them.
"And so I saw the horses in the vision, and those sitting on them, who had
fiery breastplates, even like jacinth and brimstone. And the heads of the
horses were like heads of lions, and fire and smoke and brimstone
shoot out of their mouths. By these three a third of men were killed: by the
fire and the smoke and the brimstone that shoot out of their mouths. For
their power is in their mouths; for their tails are
like serpents, and have heads, and with them they inflict wounds. But
the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues still did not
repent of the works of their hands, that they might not worship demons, and
idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which do not have the
power to see, nor to hear, nor to walk. And they did not repent of their
murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their
thievery" (Rev. 9:13-21).
The prophet Joel describes the armies and soldiers of this fierce retaliation
by the armies from the north and east as they invade the Holy Land: "Blow ye
the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the
inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is
nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of
thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains:
a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither
shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A
fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as
the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea,
and nothing shall escape them.
"The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so
shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall
they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as
a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be
much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and
they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their
ranks: Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his
path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They
shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall
climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and
the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the
LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for
he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and
very terrible; and who can abide it? (Joel 2:1-11, KJV).
This is the first invasion of the armies from the north and east. Just because
of the sheer size of these armies—two hundred million men, it is apparent
that in the first invasion that not all of their troops and weapons will be
used in this attack. However, as we will see, they will be used in the
second and third invasions.
The Second Invasion:
When the second invasion takes place, not only will the armies of the north
and east be involved, but also united with them will be armies from all the
nations of the world, as well. They will be gathered together to fight
against Jesus Christ and the resurrected saints. People of the world will
probably be able to see the Sea of Glass as it is suspended in the air over
Jerusalem. To the world this will be an invasion by alien beings from outer
space. The call will go out to all nations to gather with their armies to
repel these invaders from outer space in order to save the world. When the
sixth angel pours out the sixth of the seven last plagues, this invasion
will begin. John recorded this event: "And the sixth angel poured out his
vial into the great river Euphrates; and its waters were dried up, so that
the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared.
Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of
the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the
false prophet; for they are spirits of demons working miracles, going forth
to the kings of the earth, even of the whole world, to gather them together
to
the battle of that great day of the Almighty God" (Rev. 16:12-14).
Like the first invasion, the Euphrates River is, again, prepared so these
armies advance to the Holy Land. The nations of the world will think that
they are going to save the world from alien beings from outer space. They do
not realize that God is the one Who is gathering them in order to exact His
judgment and destroy them in the valley of Jehoshaphat in the battle of
Armageddon. The prophet Joel also prophesied of this event: "Assemble
yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round
about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the
heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will
I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the
harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats
overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of
decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall
withdraw their shining.
The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem;
and the heavens and the earth shall shake" (Joel 3:11-16, KJV).
The apostle John also foresaw this awesome judgment of God: "And out from the
altar came another angel, who had authority over fire; and he called with a
loud cry to the one who had the sharp sickle, saying, 'Thrust in your sharp
sickle, and gather the clusters of the earth, because her grapes are fully
ripe.' And the angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine
of the earth, and cast its fruit into the great winepress of the
wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood
spewed out from the winepress as high as the horses' bridles, to the
distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs" (Rev. 14:18-20)
While all these armies gather to fight against Christ and the saints, they
have no idea of what is coming. Christ will shower down upon them a
fantastic secret weapon—180-pound hailstones reigning out of the sky—against
which there is no defense. John saw this vision and wrote: "And he gathered
them together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Then the
seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and a loud voice came out of
the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, 'IT IS FINISHED.' And there
were voices and thunders and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake,
such as was not since men were on the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and
so great. And the great city was divided into three parts; and the cities of
the nations fell; and Babylon the Great was remembered before God, to give
her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath. And every island
disappeared, and no mountains were found; and great hail, each stone
the weight of a talent [180 pounds], fell down from heaven upon men;
and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague was
exceedingly great" (Rev. 16:16-21).
However, not all the armies will be destroyed by these great hailstones. Those
armies that remain will regroup and make one final, futile attempt to fight
Christ and the saints. As Christ and the saints are returning to the earth
from the Sea of Glass, Christ will unleash the ultimate weapon of
destruction from which there will be no recovery: "And I saw heaven open,
and behold, a white horse, and He Who sat on it is
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He does judge and make war.
And His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were
many crowns; and He had a name written that no one knows except Him.
And He was clothed with a garment dipped in blood; and His name is
The Word of God. And the armies in heaven [the resurrected immortal saints]
were following Him on white horses; and they were clothed in fine
linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it
He might smite the nations; and He shall shepherd them with an iron rod;
and He treads the winepress of the fury and the wrath of the Almighty God.
And on
His garment and on His thigh He has a name written: King of kings and
Lord of lords.
"Then I saw an angel standing in the sun;
and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in
the midst of heaven, 'Come and gather yourselves together to the supper
of the great God, so that you may eat the
flesh of kings, and the flesh of chief captains, and the
flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of those who
sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, and small and
great.'
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered
together to make war with Him Who sits on the horse, and with His army. And
the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked miracles in
his presence, by which he had deceived those who received the mark of the
beast and those who worshiped his image. Those two were cast alive into the
lake of fire, which burns with brimstone; and the rest were killed by the
sword of Him Who sits on the horse, even the sword that goes out of
His mouth; and all the birds were filled with their flesh" (Rev. 19:21).
In the book of Zechariah we are told how this ultimate, all-consuming weapon
will work. Zechariah describes this final plague that destroys the remnant
of the armies that fight against Jesus Christ and the saints: "For I will
gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle...then shall the LORD go
forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of
battle....and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee....And
this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that
have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they
stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and
their tongue shall consume away in their mouth....And so shall be the
plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all
the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague" (Zech. 14:2-3, 12,
15, KJV).
Then Jesus Christ and the saints begin to establish the kingdom of God on the
earth: "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives,
which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave
in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be
a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north,
and half of it toward the south....And it shall be in that day, that living
waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and
half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there
be one LORD, and his name one" (Zech. 14:4, 8-9, KJV).
The Millennium officially begins (Rev. 20:4-6).
First, Christ deals with the twelve tribes of Israel—those who survived the
great tribulation. At that time, Jerusalem becomes the capital city of the
kingdom of God. For the first three and one-half years Christ only deals
directly with Israel, not all the rest of the nations of the world. However,
during this time the rest of the nations of the world will have an
opportunity to know of Jesus Christ and the ways of God, if they come up to
Jerusalem, Christ will deal with them. On the other hand, during this three
and one-half year period not all nations will go up to Jerusalem to learn
the ways of God. Some will still rebel and Christ will have to rebuke them
until they submit. Isaiah foresaw this time: "And it shall come to pass in
the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all
nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and
let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more" (Isa. 2:2-4). This is the setting that leads up
to the third and final invasion by the nations of the north and east.
The Third Invasion:
The final, futile third invasion occurs approximately three and one-half years
after the Millennium has begun. This invasion will be totally crushed by
Jesus Christ, and will lead to the conversion of all the rest of the nations
of the world who will then submit to the rule of God. We again go to Ezekiel
38 where we are told of this third invasion. Notice that Israel is already
at peace, living under the rule of God (verses 8- 14). God says of Gog and
Magog and all the nations with them: 'Therefore, son of man, prophesy and
say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel
dwelleth safely, shall thou not know it? And thou shall come from thy place
out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding
upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: and thou shall come up
against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in
the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land,
that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog,
before their eyes....And I will call for a sword against him throughout
all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his
brother. "And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I
will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are
with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the
eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD" (verses
14-16; 21-23
KJV).
God destroys the nations of this third invasion in order to show to all the
rest of the nations of the world, who have not submitted to the rule of
Jesus Christ and the saints, that they must submit or be destroyed. Notice
what God says to Magog in Ezekiel 39: "And I will send a fire on Magog,
and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that
I am the LORD. So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people
Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the
heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel
Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day
whereof I have spoken" (verses 6-8). God does this so that the heathen will
know that He and He alone is God.
The world will only know peace when there is no more war. And the last war to
be fought will be the third invasion by the forces of God and Magog with all
the nations of the north and east. From that time forward, all during the
Millennium, people will not learn to make war as the prophet Micah foretold:
"And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and
under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the
LORD of hosts hath spoken it" (Micah 4:3-4,
KJV).
For the rest of the Millennium, Christ and the saints will rule the world. The
true government of God will be on earth. Christ is the head of that
government. It was for this purpose that Jesus Christ was born. Isaiah
wrote: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this" (Isa. 9:6-7,KJV).
In reality, what we are witnessing today, with coming war in Iraq, is laying
the foundation for all of the nations and peoples north and east of
Jerusalem to develop the greatest armies the world has ever seen. They will
fight Christ three times and they will be utterly defeated because He is
"King of kings and Lord of lords."
The New Testament Project:
We are continuing to work hard on the commentaries for the New Testament. We
have been delayed because I have been recovering from my hip operation.
However, it seems that every small delay actually turns out for the best in
the long run. With the added research that Gary Staszak and I are doing,
which will become part of the commentaries, God has led us to historical
records that prove beyond any shadow of doubt that the Byzantine Greek text
of the New Testament is the authentic Word of God, and has been accurately
preserved. When all the factors of the various Byzantine manuscripts are
carefully compared, we now know that they all agree to about 98-99%.
Furthermore, the small number of differences between the manuscripts does
not affect the accuracy of the Word of God. Contrary to the pronouncements
of many scholars, we do have the God-inspired New Testament. This will all
be explained in the commentaries in the coming New Testament.
It has now been two months since my operation. I am making good progress in my
recovery and hope to be up to full strength in about another month. Thank
you for all your prayers, letters and cards of encouragement. However,
please continue to pray for all the brethren who need to be healed, to be
encouraged, to find a job and to deal with the trials they are facing on a
daily basis. May God the Father strengthen you in love and faith. May you
continue to be inspired by the hope of our salvation. May you be filled with
the Holy Spirit of God to continue to make your calling and election sure.
Thank you for your continued support. We are in the process of finalizing
the receipts for your tithes and offerings and we will have them mailed to
you by the end of the month.
With love in Christ Jesus,
Fred R. Coulter
FRC
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