Wars, We are surrounded by them. Matthew 24 Part 2.

Part 2

Matthew 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Syria is still an active war zone, but all those be-headings have become commonplace and boring, beside that, there are powerful people who want all this destruction, or it would not be happening. Syrian President Bashar recently threatened Israel with a missile attack, to which Israel replied, that they would wipe Damascus off the map. The oddity here is that prophecy tells us that Damascus will be utterly destroyed and uninhabitable; that can only happen if a nuclear weapon is used. The other news we are painfully aware of is the Ukraine. (The land of Gog)

Isaiah 17:1 LITV The burden of Damascus: Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruined heap.

Matthew 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:”We have been talking about this.

Pestilence – Think bugs, flies, frogs, and in general, pests; plagues fall under this category as well. As of last year, the world is seeing a rise in the Bubonic plague and it is coming from multiple fronts such as Asia, Mexico, and Madagascar. In March of 2013, Egypt was swarmed with over 30 million locusts. Moreover, Guinea is now suffering from a deadly outbreak of Ebola. To make matters worse, A major French biomedical research body, the Pasteur Institute, have launched an investigation into the disappearance of some 2,300 test tubes containing samples of the deadly SARS virus.

How about famine? 

• UN calls for $2 billion to help combat hunger in Sahel.  
• North Korea: fears of food shortages outside Pyongyang as distribution fails; 
• Pakistan’s Impending Famine 

This list could go on forever.

Let’s look at earthquakes for a moment. The USGS reports: 7 Days, Magnitude 4.5+ Worldwide 92 earthquakes -Updated: 2014-04-27 19:58:45 UTC-07:00Showing event times using Local System Time (UTC-07:00)

Matthew 24:8 tells us that,  "All these are the beginning of sorrows."

The Complete Jewish Bible calls it birth pains. If a woman goes into labor she will experience birth pains. To the woman that only means one thing, the baby is on the way; to the church and Israel, it means that Jesus Christ is on his way.

Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

He was not talking in parables here, Jesus said these things to his, Jewish, disciples, and his words were stated in a manner that they understood. What would have given them the understanding; early childhood teachings from the Torah, Jewish tradition, and the context of Jesus response. 

Only moments before Jesus indicated that there would be nations involved with wars; so the context is those outside of Judaism. Sadly, this takes on meanings other than family turning against family. Islam has two specific goals; to eliminate the great Satan, America, and the little Satan, Israel.

Israel will have armies encompassed about it. Enemies will attack the city, women will be raped, and the men will be slain.

• Ezekiel 7:24 NASB 'Therefore, I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong ones cease, and their holy places will be profaned.
• Ezekiel 38:8-12 NASB "After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. (9) "You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you." (10) 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan, (11) and you will say, 'I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, (12) to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world.

Matthew 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

• Mark 13:12,13 and Luke 21:16 convey the reality of brother betraying brother, and children rising up again their parents to put them to death. Why would that happen? I am not sure this answers the question, but I am going to give to you anyway. "You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved". If Islam is the primary aggressor, then you should  understand that they focus their hate primarily toward Christians and Jews, but also against any outside of Islam, so Jews, and those who take on the name of Jesus Christ as their own will be targeted.

The word, that this version translated “offended,” is the Greek word skandalizō. It is the basis for our English word, to scandalize. It means to entrap, trip, or stumble. Lastly it can mean, make to offend. The word “betray” is the Greek word paradidōmi and means to surrender, yield up, bring forth or betray.

If we do a rewrite of the sentence using the alternate wording, it looks like this:

“And then shall many be stumbled, and shall surrender one another, and shall hate one another.”

Do you realize that this sounds like the events that happened in Europe when the Nazis came into power. People began to hand their Jewish neighbors over to the Nazis, apparently not caring what would become of them. This is not Nazi Germany we are talking about, but it seems logical to think that we could be talking about Jews handing over other Jews to invading nations in the last days.  I cannot imagine what Jews would hope to gain by doing that. Israel is a multicultural nation, and a large part are Muslims. Therefore, it is only fair to consider the possibility that this is referring to Muslims pointing out the Jews they know to invading forces. Look at the Sura's I have copied below. (The last days really encompasses the last seven years on earth before Jesus comes back.)

If Israel is being attacked by Muslims, and I believe they will be, even the Jewish traitors will only be given one option, convert or die. To convert, during this time period, is to turn your back on God forever, choosing to follow Satan to his demise. But this may help us to understand.

Sura 2:65, 7:116 O Muslims, Jews are a treacherous & deceitful people over whom lies the curse & anger of Allah. They permitted what Allah forbade, with lame excuses; therefore, He cursed & turned them into apes & pigs. Sura 9:30 Jews & Christians are perverse. Allah himself fights against them. Fight against Jews & kill them even Trees & Rocks will cry out that there are Jews hiding behind them, so Muslims must come & kill them. Sura 4:160 For wicked Jews, Allah has prepared a painful doom.

All this that I have described applies to the time after the rapture of the church. The wrath that is an integrated aspect of the seven years following the rapture, has little to  do with the church, but applies to the nations and Israel.

I suggest you give your life to Christ, not so much because it could be thought of as an insurance policy, but a relationship with the creator, and a rest knowing that you will spend your eternity in his comfort and care. Accept Jesus Christ into your life, ask him to make himself real to you, and he will.