Israel's War With Iran Is Not Armaggedon

History repeats, Revelation recycles, and people repent as God humbles proud nations.

One generation passes away, and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. Ecclesiastes 1:4

God’s got all the nations of the world in His hands.

Last night, I received a message from a friend:

“So, I wish you were going to be preaching Sunday so you can tell me what is happening in the world. Have all the 7 signs happened?”

I will be teaching at Fellowship Bible Church in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. I will also be speaking on Revelation and current events.

But my friend may be surprised I do not believe the events happening in Israel in October 2023 are the beginning of the world's end.

Not even close. I believe the earth never ends. The resurrection and final judgment is when God’s people are raised to live on this earth with the effects of sin fully reversed.

But until then, God is at work among all the nations of the earth.

The Bible teaches that all nations are God’s, and any proud nation will go through a period of humbling called “YHWH’s day of wrath” when war, pandemics (disease), economic collapse (famine), and deaths will bring that nation to brokenness, repentance of sin, and trust in God.

History repeats itself, Revelation recycles itself, and people repent from generation to generation when God humbles the nations where people live and dwell.

But my friend has been taught that the book of Revelation only happens once, and the end of the world is the fulfillment of the seven signs in the book of Revelation.

No. Revelation is a thematic book about God’s judgment on nations throughout history.

John, the writer of Revelation, repeats the great theme of the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others in the Hebrew Scriptures.

God humbles proud nations and people, and He exalts humble nations and people.

Or, to put it in other terms:

“God brings down the proud, and He exalts the humble.”

But Christians are often taught that the Book of Revelation is about a “secret rapture,” then a “tribulation on earth like never before” that will end with a battle called Armageddon, and then the sudden return of Jesus with those He raptured seven years earlier to set up His Kingdom on earth that will last 1000 years, before one final and ultimate rebellion of mankind against the Messiah when God will destroy the world and create a new one.

Whew! Got that?

Christians who teach such things are called Dispensationalists.

Some of the best-known Dispensationalists are Timothy LaHaye, who wrote the Left Behind books, Dwight Pentecost, Thomas Ice, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Ryrie, Oklahoma’s own Mark Hitchcock, and C.I. Scofield of Scofield Bible fame.

I respect men and women who hold to dispensationalism, but I do not believe the sacred Scriptures' texts support the principles dispensationalists taught.

Iran vs. Israel

The impending war between Israel and Iran is not the world's end.

Most dispensationalists will tell you the Battle of Armageddon will commence when Iran, with the support of China and Russia, will invade Israel and threaten to blow up the entire world. They say that the books of Revelation and Ezekiel teach this future battle as a sign of Christ’s return to earth and the establishment of His Kingdom.

This morning at 7:00 am, I will teach a Men’s Bible study at Istoria Ministries with Hebrew and Greek scholar Dr. David Darnell. David and I recently published an eight-volume series from the original Hebrew on the book of Isaiah. We just published a two-volume series on Revelation from the original Greek.

The author of Revelation quotes Ezekiel and Isaiah over 200 times.

We just finished our study of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, moving to Revelation.

Knowing history, biblical chronology, and the Hebrew Scriptures is one of the best ways to grasp the theme of Revelation.