Pete Garcia
In early 1914, though, it seemed almost impossible that Britain and France would go to war with Germany to defend Russia against Austria-Hungary over a dispute with Serbia. Yet by June 28, war moved straight from impossible to inevitable — without ever passing through improbable. Four years later, 10 million people had died. (From World War One: First war was impossible, then inevitable; Anatole Kaletsky)
Things often seem unlikely, improbable, or impossible…until they are not. You’d think humans would have figured that out by now. Nonetheless, when we talk about ‘things to come’, the “experts” in academia, government, politics, and the media always mock the idea that what the Bible has to say is valid or credible. These “experts” were the same ones that said WWI couldn’t happen. They also said that if you just appease evil (Hitler), his ambitions will be satiated and peace achieved. “Peace in our time” they said. The same kind of “experts” today say the same thing about Islam and radical leftism. Which is why listening to most of the pundits today speak on foreign policy, political or economic outcomes, and the future state of the world, should be considered a form of cruel and unusual punishment. (The Bible does have a perfect track record thus far…just saying.)
WWI
Perhaps the deadliest bullet ever fired triggered the First World War. On June 28th, 1914, a 19 year old Yugoslav nationalist by the name of Gavrilo Princip, fired a shot which successfully assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, igniting the flames of tension that had been steadily brewing for decades in Europe. His actions subsequently resulted in the Austro-Hungarian Empire aligning with Germany, and the Ottoman Turks and then declaring war on practically everyone else. By its end, some 10 million had died from battle, and another 28 million were either missing in action, or died due to wounds, starvation, and disease in the world’s first Great War of the 20th century.
WWII
To the German Weimar leadership, both the predictable and consequential byproducts of losing WWI resulted in the conditions which would set the stage some twenty years later for an even greater global conflict…World War II. The following reasons are attributed as causation: a perceived economic and geo-political injustice (Versailles Treaty), an ongoing global economic downturn (the Great Depression), and the decline of the then world’s only superpower, the British Empire. These three reasons created the right conditions of which when absent strong global leadership, created a geo-political vacuum which Adolph Hitler and his National Socialists were all too eager to fill. Adding fuel to the fire were the Italian and Japanese ambitions of global conquest. As a result, World War II ensued and in its wake, more than 72 million inhabitants of the earth met an early death.
WWIII
The next great global war was fought primarily behind the scenes and was simply known as the Cold War. It began at the end of WWII when the Soviet Union began to cordon off Eastern Europe as recompense for its massive losses to Nazi Germany. Although we don’t consider it a “war” in the traditional sense, it very much was and lasted longer than any we had ever fought before. It resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. The Cold War continued as the Soviets (and later the Chinese) began to export their poisonous ideology globally. In response, the United States (and her allies) tried to counter and contain the ‘domino effect’.
The physical clashes between east and west were carried out via proxy wars which were fought over the next forty-six years with mixed results (Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan). In 1989 and 1991, the US prematurely declared herself the winner at the collapsing of the ‘Iron Curtain’ and the Soviet regime. After her collapse, we weren’t rewarded with peace, but we simply traded in one enemy for another. While the Communist had been atheistic in nature and whose political and philosophical underpinnings were largely based on human secularism and Marxism, what followed was the rise of militant fundamentalist Islam.
The rapid rise of fundamentalist Islam which quickly rushed into fill the void being left by the communists as early as in the 1970’s. This was first evidenced in the 1972 Olympics attack by the Black September Palestinian terrorist group, the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the 1980 Wahhabi-hardening of Saudi Arabia, and the US-backed Taliban victory over the Russians in Afghanistan. By the late 1980’s, other Muslim nations who were once considered “moderate”, began to see a groundswell of their own radicalized Islamic movements within their borders (Lebanon, Egypt, and Pakistan). At the same time, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist front man Yasser Arafat (who was Egyptian) attempted to co-opt and unify the growing Arab discontent and anger and harness it into a global jihad movement against the nation of Israel.
Assessment
Albert Einstein famously quipped that “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” This sentiment, along with the fear of a US-USSR nuclear exchange, formulated US foreign policy for half a century prompting the creation of a highly symbolic Doomsday Clock, along with the START Treaties which were meant to scale back nuclear arsenals we both had pointed at each other. While well-meaning, they ignored the reality that WWIII had already begun. WWIII wasn’t just fought with bombs and bullets in proxy wars, but with ideologies.
These socialist ideologies had crept into the university, the seminary, popular culture, and into government long before…corrupting a whole generation. It came to a head in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s with Flower Power and Anti-Vietnam demonstrations. Unfortunately, that generation is now in charge and as a result, we are now just as divided as we were prior to the American Civil War. Consider these:
* Common-sense has been replaced by political correctness. Political correctness is Cultural Marxism and has infected almost every institute of government, media, and education without question.
* To counter an increasingly destabilized world, liberty has been traded for security. To counter a global threat, we created the very thing President Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address…the Military Industrial Complex whose arsenal contains increasingly devastating weapons of war as well as providing the tools necessary to create a virtual police state.
* Economic freedom has been replaced by financial bondage. At $20T in debt, our nation will either have to collapse financially, or completely restructure its financial and currency systems. Massive deficits have been accrued particularly over the last two decades at the expense of our children and grandchildren’s future.
Thus, we have a myriad of forces today arrayed against the West that are increasingly and aggressively seeking to challenge US dominance on the global stage. Some of those forces are non-state aligned actors such as: Narco-gangs, Islamic terrorist, anarchist groups, cybercriminal networks, and organized criminal networks. Others are state-sponsored from China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran and include armies and rebel/militia movements who serve as destabilizers. Regardless, the US is increasingly having to cover-down on partner nations who can’t or won’t handle their own issues thus requiring US military involvement.
Still, another faction working to destabilize the world is that of economic-terrorist. Billionaire George Soros (and men like him), along with his spider-web network of shadow-organizations have funneled hundreds of millions of Dollars, Pounds, Rubles, and Euros through to push their agendas of toppling western governments. He’s done this through buying off politicians who share the open-border immigration policies and other hard-left agendas, funding groups who will violently protest and riot, and organizations that actively commit law-fare. This in an attempt to create a singular global system by which they believe will fix all the world’s problems.
Fair to say that World War III has been ongoing since the end of WWII, and our enemy’s corruption is bent solely on the destruction of western governance and rule of law. Since secular-leftism (Socialism and Marxism in its varying forms) has the same agenda as that of Islamic fundamentalism–it’s a natural synchronization to see the two partnered up to fight against Western-capitalism, democracy, constitutional republics, and Judeo-Christian values. Hence the phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” rings true.
Assessment-World War IV
And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. Revelation 6:2-4
Seeing as World War III wasn’t a single war in the traditional sense, but rather an ongoing series of conflicts (both militarily and ideologically), World War IV will follow along the same vein. The Apostle John was shown the opening of the Seal Judgments by Christ in Heaven after the age of the Church has ended. As Christ takes the scrolls and opens them, terrible judgments are poured out upon the earth. The first to appear on the scene is the Antichrist, who quickly rises to power and takes over. The Second Seal is opened and a rider on a red horse takes peace from the earth. After this, the riders on the black and pale horses (pestilence, starvation, and death) quickly ensue in the aftermath of total-war.
So how does it all begin?
Like every other war, they do not just happen out of thin air. There is a cause (real or contrived), a buildup of forces, logistical preparations, information gathering, political posturing, and lastly, diplomatic severing. Neither are ‘world wars’ just single battles. They’re conflicts extending days, weeks, months, and years over many nations.
A reasonable, scripturally-based hypothesis is that we (the Church) have been in existence since the first century. Christ said that we would be ‘salt and light’ to a world that was dying and in darkness. In other words, we were a stabilizing force meant to preserve the conditions so that the Gospel could be spread to all nations. (Matt. 5:13-14, 28:18-20) We know that the Church Age had a beginning (Acts 2-Pentecost) and it will also have an ending. This ending of the Church Age will culminate in an event known as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church (1 Thess. 4:13-18, 1 Cor. 15:51-56, John 14:1-3, Rev. 3:10). We also know that the year 2032 would mark exactly 2,000 years since that first Pentecost when the Church was conceived.
It is 2017 now…will we go the full distance to 2032? Hard to say, because other dispensations weren’t exact (that we know of anyway). But we can deduce in general terms, that 4,000 years of human history preceded Christ’s first coming going back to Adam and Eve. 2,000 years have since ensued since His birth, so we are definitely ‘in the window’ if the Six Day/Six Millennium-model holds true. The Seventh Millennium thus marking the Sabbath Rest for man and Creation, just as it was at Creation.
To be continued…