AT THE BATTLE OF MEGIDO—- ARMAGEDDON OF REVELATION 16, IS A MIGHTY POWER OF EATERN NATIONS——-
IT IS THE TIME OF THE LAST OF 7 TRUMPETS TO BE BLOW——
The Triumphant Return and the Kingdom
The Army from the East
From a book by Grant Jeffrey Preparations for the Battle of Armageddon The Scriptures record three unique predictions regarding the future Battle of Armageddon that could never be fulfilled in any previous generation in history. The first prediction regarding an army of 200 million soldiers of the kings of the East implies that there must be significant increase in the population of males in Asia. Second, the Scriptures indicate that the kings of the East will prepare a military highway across Asia to facilitate the marching of that huge army toward Israel. Third, the prophecies about the final Battle of Armageddon describe an event when the Euphrates River will suddenly dry up to allow the army of the kings of the East to cross it and march west toward Israel. Then the vast army of the "kings of the East" will confront the western armies of the Antichrist to determine whether the West or the East will rule the earth. (No! The armies of the East - Revelation 16 - will be coming to united with the 10 nation Beast united armies, to battle against Christ. They will gather at the plain of Megiddo, about 70 miles NW of Jerusalem. This prophecy I deal with in other in-depth studies on my Website - Keith Hunt) The following paragraphs will document evidence that these unique prophecies are being fulfilled in our generation for the first time in history. An Unprecedented Increase in the Male Population in Asia The apostle John foretold the final Battle of Armageddon: "And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (Revelation 16:16). The name Armageddon is derived from the Greek phrase that means "mount of Megiddo," the small mountain that overlooks the ancient ruins of the biblical city of Megiddo. From the mountain you can look out over the enormous Valley of Jezreel that extends from northern Israel far to the south toward Jerusalem. Numerous strategic battles have been fought at Armageddon including the triumphant victory recorded in Judges 5:19 and the devastating Egyptian victory over the forces of the righteous King Josiah. The last great battle at Megiddo occurred when Lord Allenby and his Allied Expeditionary Force defeated the armies of Turkey in 1918 and set the stage for the rebirth of Israel. The prophecy indicated that the army of the Oriental alliance from the nations of the kings of the East will consist of an astonishing army of two hundred million soldiers: "And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them" (Revelation 9:16). This statement was remarkable when you realize that the entire population of the ancient Roman Empire in the first century was only approximately 200 million people. Some students of prophecy mistakenly assumed that the Bible referred to 200 million horsemen. However, there are only approximately 35 million horses throughout the globe. A careful reading of the prophecy reveals that John's use of the word "horsemen" in Revelation 9:16 actually refers to "the four horsemen of the Apocalypse" described by John under the symbols of the first four seal judgments (Revelation 6:1-8). The best interpretation is that the prophecy reveals that the army of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse that represents God's wrath will include 200 million soldiers. (Jeffrey has it mixed here again. The four horsemen are just before the Great Tribulation of the 5th seal. They have nothing directly to do with the "day of God's wrath" which is the 7th seal. Revelation 9 is during the day of the Lord, and it is here that the East will come against the Europe Roman/Babylon West, not at Armageddon as Jeffrey teaches - Keith Hunt) Many have wondered if this number could actually be literal. Yet, the population of Asia is growing so quickly that the nations of the East could field an army in the next few years that would contain 200 million soldiers. The Chinese government instituted an unprecedented "One Child Policy" in 1979 in an attempt to reduce the massive population growth that threatened their ability to feed their rapidly growing billion-plus population. Under this policy, each couple can only have one child during their lifetime and each woman must obtain an authorized birth coupon prior to conceiving a child. Incredibly, this horrendously intrusive population policy requires that fertile women's menstrual cycles be publicly monitored and that they undergo mandated pelvic examinations if suspected pregnant. An official circular of the Party Central Committee and the State Council in November 1982 required mandatory sterilization of all couples who have had two or more children. The official policy requires that all unauthorized pregnancies must be aborted whenever detected, regardless of the stage of pregnancy. Government population control doctors use forceps to crush the unborn baby's skull, or inject pure formaldehyde into the soft cap of baby's head either before birth or during the actual delivery of fully developed babies in the ninth month. Fines equal to one year's income are imposed on couples who have an unauthorized birth. An article in the New York Times in April 1993 reported that punishments also included the confiscation of property, the destruction of their houses, and severe physical beatings. This was also confirmed by an Internet article. As a result of the Communist government's cruelty, Chinese couples who become pregnant frequently abort babies if an ultrasound test indicates the unborn child is a female. They often continue to abort female fetuses until the test reveals that the woman is carrying a male fetus. Then they allow the male child to be born. Since they can only have one child, many couples choose to have a son to continue their family name and to support them in their retirement. In 1991, an article in a Shanghai, China, journal warned that the unbalanced ratio of boys to girls would eventually produce an army of young bachelors numbering some 70 million strong, without any prospect of marriage by the year 2000. The Toronto Star newspaper reported in 1995 that Chinese officials admitted this unprecedented imbalance of boys and girls. Numerous reports by human rights organizations reveal that China, India, and North Korea are also involved in the selective abortion of female babies. In addition, many families in these nations admit to killing or abandoning their young female children. This unprecedented situation may set the stage for the fulfilment of the ancient biblical prophecy about an army of 200 million in the last days. (The kings of the Easy will be from Russia, China, India, Korea etc. There will be no problem at all in putting forth an army of 200 million - Keith Hunt) A Highway for the Kings of the East The prophet John also prophesied in Revelation about the preparation of a military highway across Asia in the last days that will allow this massive Oriental army to march across the vast reaches of Asia toward the final Battle of Armageddon in northern Israel. John refers to the building of this highway in these curious words: "The way of the kings of the east might be prepared" (Revelation 16:12). The Chinese Communist government has recently spent extraordinary sums of money and expended hundreds of thousands of lives of construction workers to build an unprecedented military super-highway from mainland China across southern Asia, heading directly west toward the land of Israel. This new highway through the most rugged mountain terrain across the south of China and through Tibet, Afghanistan, and Pakistan has no obvious economic purpose, and no foreigners are allowed near it. The following (poorly translated) statement regarding this highway, from a January 1999 article by Oleg Limanov in "Marco Polo Magazine," reads: "Karakorum highway, connecting Afghanistan through Central Asia states and China to Pakistan with probable joining India would be very significant for all concerning parties, agreement on using of which was signed by China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in July 1996." Another Internet article describes the land route from China towards the Middle East: "With Myanmar [Burma] support, the Indian government is creating a transportation corridor from South Asia through Myanmar to Southeast Asia. This corridor will compete with other grand trans-Eurasian projects, such as a land transportation link from China through Central Asia to Turkey and Europe." (Even without a "highway" with modern means of travel via planes etc. it would not be at all difficult to get a massive army into Palestine and the plain of Megiddo - Keith Hunt) The Drying Up of the Euphrates River Another prophecy of the apostle John in Revelation declares that the Euphrates River will dry up to allow this army to cross from Asia into the Middle East to invade Israel: "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared" (Revelation 16:12). (This is no doubt a physical symbol only, for even if the Euphrates does not dry up, that river cannot possibly stop the movement of a huge army from the East into the Megiddo plain, for modern air-born machines are not stopped by a river - Keith Hunt) Throughout history, the Euphrates River has been an almost impassable military barrier between East and West, often preventing large armies from crossing from one side to the other in their attempts to conquer the nations on the other side. (This was only so before the invention of the modern huge planes - Keith Hunt) The former Turkish president Turgut Ozal built a series of twenty-two dams on the Tigris and Euphrates river systems during the 1980s and 1990s. The huge Ataturk Dam, the fifth largest dam on earth, is part of the $32 billion Southeastern Anatolia Project, which was designed to produce electricity and to double the irrigation to approximately 30,000 square miles of semi-arid land. This series of dams is intended to allow Turkey to produce ample food for the growing population of the Middle East. The Ataturk Dam is estimated to provide irrigation to over four million acres of land, enabling Turkish farmers to grow cotton, tobacco, sugarbeets, and soybeans. What's most notable about the Ataturk Dam, one mile long and 600 feet high, is that it is capable of completely blocking the headwaters of the Euphrates River for the first time in history. The great Euphrates River can now be dried up exactly as prophesied to allow an Asian army to march toward Israel across the ancient battlefields of Mesopotamia, which have witnessed so many historically decisive battles throughout history. This is another example of a unique prophecy that can now be fulfilled in our generation. (It really means very little in the context of the modern space- age world we have today. No army today is stopped by a river, they can fly over it, even bringing with them tanks, missile launchers and all fighting equipment. It is shocking that an educated man like Jeffrey did not have the simple logic of the mind to realize in today's world this drying up of the Euphrates [which will be literal] has only a symbolic meaning for the most part, and will also of course be a "time" of the end "time line" so we will know this prophecy of Revelation 16 is coming to pass. Certainly armies will be able to move across a dried up river, but they sure would not be stopped if it was not dried up - Keith Hunt) .................... |
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