In this sermon, the preacher discusses the events that will occur after the Lord Jesus Christ takes believers to be with Him. He mentions that the nations of the earth are currently aligned in a way that could lead to a series of campaigns. The preacher refers to verses in the book of Revelation and the book of Daniel to explain the movements of nations and the formation of coalitions. He specifically mentions a fourth coalition called the Kings of the East, which will trouble the conqueror of the Arab state.

Some of our commentators, referring to the fact that we should be standing, or conquering, as one commentator put it, in the very brink of Armageddon, pointed through our reading of the scriptures with this great line of prophetic truth, that we realize that Armageddon represents an unprecedented holocaust that shall break upon the world to give this world its greatest bloodbath that the world has ever seen. And every time we hear the rattling of swords and the rustling of sabers, we begin to wonder if this presages for us and heralds the coming of this great battle of Armageddon. It is our purpose to have you think with us for the time of our study this evening on the subject of Armageddon. Who, when, and where? We are seeking to present a line of prophetic truth soberly and sanely, without trying to be spectacular, yet to acquaint you with that which the Word of God reveals as the culmination of God's program for the nations during the tribulation period. We recognize that when God chose the nation Israel back at the time of Abraham as a repository for divine truth, and the instrument through which God would make Himself known to the nations of the earth, that nation, by virtue of its choice by God, became the particular subject of satanic attack. And the history of Israel in the Old Testament is the history of Satan's purpose and program to try to wipe out his chosen people because of the use to which God would put them, because of the great destiny which God has ordained for them in the day when Jesus Christ shall reign on the earth. When we come down to the time of Christ, we find this nation oppressed by the cruel oppressor, the Roman Empire. Their rights of self-government and self-determination nationally have been abrogated, and they are subjected to the iron fists of Rome. And yet, Jesus Christ came to reaffirm and reiterate his promises, the promises of God to the nation Israel, that God would raise up to them a king, and that that king should bring them deliverance from sin and should bring them into the millennial kingdom. But the nation of the Jews rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, and when they were confronted with a choice between Jesus and the Roman Emperor, they said, away with this man, we will have no king but Jesus. God announced through the son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that desolation was determined upon Jerusalem and upon the Jewish nation, because they had rejected the Son of God who had come to redeem and erase. As we turn to the prophetic scriptures, we find that the plight of the nation Israel must become increasingly more serious. They must suffer a great deal more before the comes when the Son of God will redeem them, bring them into their land as a free and a redeemed people, and institute God's governing reign over them. And we find it during the tribulation period which, if you have been studying with us, you will instantly recognize as that seven-year period on this earth, following the translation or the rapture of the church out of this earth's into the heavenly to be with Christ. During that tribulation period, Satan is going to let loose upon this earth a time of unprecedented persecution, and the prophet John, in the book of the Revelation and chapter 12, writes of the inception of this satanic movement that has as its purpose the obliteration of every Jew from the face of the earth. And I am reading in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 13, when the dragon, that is Satan, saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child, that is the nation Israel. To the woman Israel were given two wings as a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, that is for three and a half years, from the face of the serpent. And so, thus far in our reading, we find that in the middle of that seven-year tribulation period, or three and a half years before the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back to this earth, there is going to come a movement of unprecedented fierceness and wrath that will try to exterminate every Jew that is living at that time. We read in verse 15, the serpent, that is Satan, cast out of his mouth waters of flood after the woman, that is Israel, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth, or the nation, or the Gentiles as it is normally translated, helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, for Satan now has openly declared war against the nation Israel, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And turning again into Revelation chapter 16, and verse 13, we have something of this movement again. As John writes in 1613, I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon. Frogs are referred to here as dwellers in the deep, or in the mire, and here is that which comes out of the pit itself as the expression of the purpose and the plan of Satan. And we find that coming from Satan, Satan works through the mouth of the beast and the mouth of the false prophet. We have identified these in our previous studies. The beast, the head of the Roman Empire, the political power, and the false prophet, the head of the great world religious system. And these two, together with Satan, form a trinity from the pit. We read in verse 14, they are the spirits of demons working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And here we find now the plan of Satan being put into operation. He has as his purpose to exterminate every Jew, for you will remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to reign on this earth over the seed of Abraham, the seed of David. If Jesus Christ reigns, it is evident that Satan is no longer a world ruler. Satan's purpose is this, and Satan's plan is this. If I can wipe out every Jew, there will be no kingdom over which Jesus Christ can reign, and if he has no Jewish nation over which he can reign, I can continue as the world ruler. And so, to defeat God's avowed purpose of setting his son Jesus Christ on the throne of this earth to reign, Satan says, I will wipe out the people of the throne, and then there can be no earthly kingdom. So, Satan's purpose is, I will move nations against Palestine, and I will bring organized military powers against the people of Israel to exterminate them through invasion and a counter-invasion with the result that every Jew will be wiped out. And so, through the beast and the false prophet, he goes forth to the kings of the earth and the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, and verse 16, he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. And here we find a movement that is so great that it almost staggers and overwhelms the imagination. It is called in verse 14, the battle of that great day of God Almighty that will take place at Armageddon. Now, in your English text, the word is translated, the battle of that day. Now, this is not the normal Greek word which is translated, battle. A battle is one isolated meeting of two armies. This is a different Greek word, and it is the Greek word which means a campaign, a number, a successive number of individual battles. And so, what we read up here is the campaign of that great day of God Almighty which takes place at Armageddon. This is our purpose, briefly this evening, to try to acquaint you something with the movement of armies in this campaign called the campaign of that great day of God Almighty. Now, if you turn back into the prophecy of Ezekiel, we read there in Ezekiel chapter 38, the interesting word in verse 9 that says, Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, and thou shalt be a cloud to cover the land. Now, I want you to emphasize that phrase, to cover the land, for this campaign of Armageddon is a campaign that, before it is finished, is completely going to sweep over the whole land of Palestine. And Ezekiel, 38 times, emphasizes the fact of the extent of this campaign. We saw it in Revelation chapter 16 and verse 16 that it will begin at Armageddon. Now, Armageddon is translated, or is the Hebrew word which means the mountain of Megiddo. The mountain of Megiddo lies between Mount Carmel and the city of Nazareth, to the northern part of Palestine. Here is a great open prairie or plain that, when Napoleon stood there and looked over that plain, he said this is the world's greatest natural battlefield. He said there is sufficient room here for the armies of the world to manipulate. This great extended plain stretches then from the Mediterranean Sea eastward across the northern part of Palestine, and when it says that this invasion is going to envelop Armageddon, it brings before us this geography of the northern part of Palestine. But then, if you will turn to the prophecy of Joel, chapter 3, we find something more concerning the geography of this battle. You're using the Hebrew Bible. That's on page 933. Joel isn't very big, but the numbers work. 933. We read in Joel chapter 3 and verse 2, "...I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat." Then, dropping down to verse 9, "...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 pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about. Fither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be awakened, or let the Gentiles be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the Gentiles round about. Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down for the Passover flow, for their wickedness is great." Here is a description of the event for Gentiles leading up to the return of the Lord, and this time it is referred to in verse 2 and verse 12 as the valley of Jehoshaphat. Now, the valley of Jehoshaphat was that portion of Palestine that went from Jerusalem over to the east, beyond the Jordan, and then northward. It was the trade route from Jerusalem up to Assyria on the north, and so here is the second part of the land of Palestine that is going to be crossed and recrossed by these marching armies. Ezdralon, or Armageddon at the north, and the valley of Jehoshaphat at the east. Now, will you turn back to the prophet Isaiah, and in Isaiah, in chapter 34, we have another word concerning this same campaign. Page 742, Isaiah 34, verse 1. Come near ye nations to hear, and hearken ye people, let the earth hear and all that is therein, the world and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their arms. He hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to their slaughter. Their spleen also shall be cast out, and their sin shall come up out of their carcasses. And then drop down, will you do, verse 6. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made packed with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the packs of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord hath a sacrifice in Phodra, and a great slaughter in the land of Edomia. And again, in Isaiah, in chapter 63, we have, in verse 1, who is this that cometh from Edom with thy garments from Phodra? Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vast? Putting these passages together, we find another area that is to be included in this campaign of Armageddon, and it is the land of Edom. And Edom is that state which at present lies south and east from Jerusalem and from the Dead Sea. And when you put these together, or first let us look at Zechariah chapter 2, and in Zechariah chapter 12, I want to say, and verse 2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the sea, both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And again, in chapter 14 of Zechariah, and verse 2, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and then a description of the destruction of Jerusalem. So, when you put all these together, we find that this campaign of Armageddon literally covers the whole land, even as Ezekiel 38 9 says that it begins with a plain of Megiddo to the north, goes down through the valley of Jehoshaphat, includes the land of Edom to the south and the east, and of course has its center in Judea and in Jerusalem, the central part of the land of Palestine. Then, it is interesting to turn again back to the book of the revelations in chapter 14, and notice the description of this same campaign that is given in verse 15 and following. Revelation 14 15, Another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat in the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reaped. For the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And then, verse 19, the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and the blood came out of the winepress, even under the horses' bridles, by the pace of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. Now, sixteen hundred furlongs is approximately two hundred miles, and if you will examine a map of the Maccabear Bible, you will find that from the northern part of Palestine to the southern part of Palestine is approximately two hundred miles. And that which John is doing in Revelation 14 20, is to gather together all of these scriptures to which we have just looked, and has shown us that the land of Palestine is to be given a flood bath of unprecedented proportions from Armageddon at the north that will flow down through the valley of Jehoshaphat, will cover the land of Edom where Esau settles, and will wash over the city of Jerusalem and Judea itself. John looks at this scene of carnage, and he describes it as blood flowing to the depth of the horses' bridles. It is beyond human description and imagination to see a race, the vast line that has been drained from the veins of those who follow the purpose of prayer and plan of faith is to try to exterminate the chosen people to prevent Jesus Christ from coming in order that he might reign. Now, another interesting question with which we want to deal after we have discussed where does Armageddon take place, is to deal with the question of who will be in this great campaign? What are the movements of army, and what will be the course of this campaign of Armageddon? We have to go back in our thinking to the beginning of the tribulation period. You'll remember, if you have been with us from week to week in this study, that in the ninth chapter of the prophecy of Daniel, we have read of a covenant that the head of the United States of Europe is going to make with the Jews. After the church has been translated into the presence of our Lord, these international diplomats are going to realize that the crucial question in world politics is the question of the Arab-Israeli dispute, and no man can long stay in power who does not give some settlement to this Arab-Israeli dispute. The nations of Europe are going to federate together because of their fear of the King of the North, that is, the power of Russia, and when these nations join together in this confederacy, the leader of that United States of Europe is going to publish an edict in which he gives the land of Palestine to the Jews for their homeland, and he pledges all of the power of the federated states of Europe to protect the integrity of the nation Israel. This covenant is described for us in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 27. We find the same thing discussed in Revelation chapter 6 and verse 2, where a rider on a white horse goes forth to conquer, and he brings the world into subjection to himself, not by waging a great campaign, but he brings the world into subjection by offering the world a false peace, and the land of Palestine will accept this head of the federated states of Europe as their god, as their messiah, is the one who fulfills with them the Abrahamic covenant to give them their land. This means, then, that there is an alliance formed between Palestine and the King of the West, or the head of the federated states of Europe. Now, you will remember there is another great political power that we have studied previously that is called, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, the King of the North. That is, the Russian Confederacy, which, in our study of those passages, we saw would include the Arab states of the Middle East. There is a third great world power at that time. That is what is called, in Daniel 11, the King of the South. The King of the South, in the Old Testament, referred to Egypt, and we shall identify it in our study this evening. There was a fourth great coalition of nations referred to in Revelation chapter 16 and verse 12 as the Kings of the East. Now, in order to try to get these movements of nations, I want to try to outline it a little bit on the board. I'm sorry that there are some of you who will not be able to see the board. You will have to put on your special glasses and try to think with me. Some of you tucked away in the corners may miss this, but you can see it afterwards. I tried to get an artist who is in our midst to draw a map of the Mediterranean area. I couldn't find him before service, so I went ahead and did it myself. I asked three or four people to do it, and they wouldn't do it. When I got it done, they all wanted to find it. I think I did a pretty good job, don't you? We're going to number these powers so that we can try to get them identified. If you can make this out, we are here in the Mediterranean Sea, right over here, where I'm going to put an X, we have the city of Jerusalem, which is the center of this whole movement. Now, for convenience's sake, I'm going to call the land of Egypt power number one. I'm going to call Russia power number two. I'm going to call the European Confederacy, that has its headquarters over here in Italy, power number three. And then, there is a power of the east off here beyond the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that I am going to call power number four. Now then, if you will turn in your Bible to Daniel chapter 11, we have this campaign of Armageddon outlined for us. We will go through this to try to trace some of the movements of nations as we find it here, and then in some of the other passages. Now, beginning in Daniel 11 36, we have a word concerning power number three, or the Federated States of Europe, and we read in Daniel 11 36, the king, that is the king of the Roman Empire, or the head of the Federated States of Europe, shall do according to his will. He doesn't recognize any power other than himself, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the god of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be passed. The indignation is what we call the tribulation period. Here is an individual whose end has been determined, and he has three and a half years yet to to operate from the time that the events of verse 36 begin to unfold. We read in verse 37, he shall not regard the godly fathers, nor the desire of women, nor any god, for he shall magnify himself above all. In his estate he shall honor the god of might. The only god that he recognizes is the god of war. The only power to which he bows is the might and power that there is in this European Confederation of Nations. This is the individual, number three, the head of the Federated States of Europe, who has entered into the agreement with Jerusalem, and with all the worldwide Jewry, to protect their interests and to guarantee their right to the land of Palestine. The hearing is off here in Europe, and the people of the Jews are there in Palestine. They have been in the land for several years now. They are congratulating themselves that they have entered into rest and into security, and the reason that the Jews are willing to worship a Gentile and accept the Gentile as their messiah is that their eyes are darkened to the truth of the word of God, that God's messiah is the son of David, and when one comes to give them their land and to cause their warfare to cease, they're going to say, what need have we of anyone else? This one is good enough for us, but it isn't good enough for God. So, we find now, dropping down to verse 40, the beginning of this campaign of Armageddon, and it says, at the time of the end. Now, that phrase, the time of the end, is significant, because it means the end of God's program for the Jews. The end of the time before messiah comes to set up his kingdom. What that phrase means is that God is now getting ready to wind this whole program up. So, God says, all right, let things begin to roll, and go on to their conclusion so that there can be judgment. At the time of the end, the king of the south shall push at him. Now, notice, the king of the south is Egypt. That nation where Israel was in bondage for more than 400 years, so that they always referred to Egypt as the power to the south, they were sort of in the position of Yankees looking down on those southerners. But, we find the king of the south is going to push at Palestine. And, it is significant to me that Daniel, writing more than 500 years before the birth of Christ, told that the final conflict in the world history was going to begin when what was then, and what has since, been the world's most backward degenerated nation would be the very nation that was set apart to the cinder box and start off the campaign of Armageddon. If I stood up here 10 years ago, or five years ago, and preached this, which I would have done just as strongly as I've done now, there's some of you who would have said, you're crazy. Egypt is too little, and backward, and insignificant to start anything. But, we have seen what has happened within our own days, as Nasser has brought that nation Egypt to a place of domination in the affairs of Egypt, and governments of the world are scared to death as to what that egotistical man may set out to do, and the conflagrations which he, in his foolhardiness, may set off at any time. But, Daniel the prophet, by inspiration of Scripture, told us that the campaign of Armageddon would begin when the king of the south, or Egypt, would begin to push at Jerusalem, who is in alliance with the federated states of Europe. Then notice something else in verse 40, "...and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind." So, here is power number two, and power number two and power number one meet at Jerusalem and completely destroy the city of Jerusalem. Evidently, what has happened is that Russia, power number two, has been sitting up there and wants to get something started. So, they begin to whisper to the head of power number one, and have said, you have a right to the land that those Jews occupy. Why, look at them. They're there in the closet strip, and that really belongs to you. Now then, I don't have any pretext for going down there, but you have a good reason, and if you will march against the Jews, we will then reach down from the north, and we will join you in the destruction of Jerusalem, and we, in our alliance, will be able to stand off the whole world. And so, we read it in verse 40, "...at the time of the end the king of the south shall push it in, and the king of the north shall come against him with a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen and many ships, and he shall enter into the country and overflow and pass over." And so, this coalition is going to destroy the city of Jerusalem. That is why, in Revelation chapter 14, we read it a few moments ago, the Jews have to flee out of Palestine and seek refuge among the nations of the earth because of the things that Satan purposes to do to destroy them by bringing the Egyptian-Russian alliance, or, if I may use the term, Russia and the Arab states against the Jews in Palestine. Now, before we look further, here in Daniel 11, I want to refer you to what we saw in our study in Ezekiel 38 and 39, that after these join in this alliance and have destroyed Jerusalem, they are going to turn around and they are going back to the flame of Megiddo, or Armageddon, or the flame of Ezra. And, if you will read Ezekiel 38 and particularly 39, and I can't take the time to go into all that this evening, but there you will read that God, as he has that alliance gathered together in the flame of Megiddo, is going to pour out fire upon the Egyptians, a Russian alliance upon the communist federation, and is going to wipe them out as he wipes out the wicked and niquitous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining fire and prison stone upon them. And so, if you will trace this movement of power number one coming to Jerusalem, power number two joining them in the destruction of Jerusalem, and then retreating to the flame of Armageddon where they are wiped out. Now, that leaves power number three. As the great world powers, the Russian communist bloc has been obliterated, I believe, three and a half years before the Lord Jesus returns. And so, the head of the Federated States of Europe begins to move, and I take it in verse 41, he shall enter also into the glorious land. Now, I understand the he of verse 41, so back to verse 36. If it had been this Russian-Egyptian alliance, I believe it would have said they in verse 41, but it says he. And so, now we are taking up this willful king. This willful king shall enter into the glorious land. And so, here is the movement in which power number three comes across the Mediterranean and moves into the land of Palestine, and it tells us that he shall escape out of his hands, Edom and Moab. Verse 42, he shall stretch forth his hands also upon the country, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. Now, this one is coming into Palestine, comes and marches down to capture the land of Egypt, and then goes back to Jerusalem it found. Did you get that? Verse 41, he enters into the glorious land. Verse 42, he stretches his hand upon the country, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. The Libyans and Ethiopians shall be at his beck. He has conquered that whole area that was occupied by the Arab faith. But, then it tells us in verse 44, hiding out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. Now, here we have number four being brought into the campaign, and keep your finger in Daniel 11 because we'll be back to it in just a moment. But, turn with me to Revelation chapter 16 and verse 12. Revelation 16, 12. 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. Now, here is an alliance of nations that are not identified, that is not identified for us except that they come from the east, beyond the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. If I may censure a suggestion, I believe that this is a coalition of the Asiatic nations who, watched as the federated states of Europe spread its dominion and its power over all the earth, and it moved into the vacuum left by the destruction of Russia, and the federation of the Asiatic peoples say, we are not going to be dominated by this European confederacy, and God permits that mighty army to move, and it begins to move out of the east into the land of Palestine. Had we more time, we could show you in the book of the revelations that this army of Asiatic peoples, or this eastern confederacy, when it marches toward Palestine, is going to be two hundred million men strong. Now, it is no wonder in Daniel 11, 44, that tidings out of the east and the north troubling. Now, if you were a commander, if you were a commander of military forces in Palestine, and didn't think that there was an enemy around, and you were all the way across the Mediterranean from your supply bases, and you heard that 200 million people were beginning to march down towards you, you probably would get scared too. And so, it tells us that he goes forth with great fury to destroy and utterly make away many, and he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas and the glory of holy mountains. The glory of holy mountains is the influence of them. Between the seas is evidently the Dead Sea that we have down here in the Mediterranean Sea, and so this head of the Federated States of Europe decides that he is going to meet this 200 million marching army by setting himself up in the mountains of Judea where there will be some natural defenses. Now again, we find Jerusalem being destroyed by this great invading army that sent its headquarters there in the region of Jerusalem, and Palestine is once again ready for another in the depths of the bloodbath. But, to get the confirmation of this, will you turn with me please to the book of the Revelation, this time chapter 19. Now, may I summarize a bit far that Palestine has been, at the beginning of the tribulation period, in quietness and tranquility because there is trusting the head of the Federated States of Europe. Suddenly, they are invaded by the Egyptian power from the south, and that power is joined by the Russian power from the north, and Palestine is bathed in blood, and the Jews that survive have to escape. They watch from a distance as this European confederacy sets its headquarters up there in Palestine, and occupies the land of Palestine once again, and they wait for something to happen, and there comes this marching army from the east that goes chasing across the land of Palestine. But now, in Revelation 19 verse 11, we have another invasion of Palestine. This time, not an invasion from the north or the south or the east or the west, but this is an invasion from outer space, if you please. This is the invasion of heaven and hell. As we read in verse 11, I saw heaven open, behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew himself. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God. The army, that is the saints that were in heaven, followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white in paint, and out of his mouth doth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, that he should rule them with a rod of iron, and he treaded the winepress of the wrath of almighty God, and have on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And suddenly, as the western confederacy of the federated states of Europe is ready to engage in mortal combat with the invading Asiatic force, there suddenly appears the sign of the coming of the Son of Man in heaven, and the strangest thing happens. These warring nations suddenly forget their animosity for each other because of a common animosity against God and God's purpose, and we read in verse 19 of that same chapter, I saw the beasts and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And here, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven, he comes to meet the mass forces of 200 million Asiatics, plus unnumbered millions in the armies of the federated states of Europe, and yet, by the word of his mouth, he destroyed and slayed those multiplied millions that gathered together and shook their fists in the face of God and said to God, we forbid you to send your son Jesus Christ back to the earth to reign, as though Satan, by amassing all humanity together, could prevent the purpose of God from coming to its culmination. And we read in verse 20, the beast was taken, and within the false prophets arose miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the they were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Now, this portion of the word of God, to which we have rapidly looked this evening, has given us something of an outline of the events which will come to their culmination after the Lord Jesus Christ has taken believers to be within sound. As we, in these days, read our newspapers and news magazines, and follow the newspapers to see developments in this international crisis, it certainly is not such in the imagination to say that the nations of the earth are so aligned this very night that this very series of campaigns could begin. It does not take realignment of nations. It does not take great changes in world politics. The stage is so set, beloved of God, that these events could unfold at any time God gave the signal, and took his hand off to let these things unroll to their God-ordained destiny. I clearly believe that you and I are living in most precarious days as far as nations of the earth are concerned, but we are living in the most glorious days as far as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned. For we have been given this, and this scripture has been recorded so that we who live in the last days should be able to understand the purpose of God, that our hearts should not give way to fear as to what a man may do, but we can live in conscious expectation that before these events begin to unfold, you and I will have been translated into his glory, and we shall look upon the one who loved us, who gave himself for our redemption, whose eyes said we might have eternal life. If you would agree with me in our study of the scriptures this evening that God has the same sense, and that these events could unfold at any time, it makes our question to you of utmost importance when we ask what is your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you do not know him as Savior, should these events begin to unfold, you would be swept into this maelstrom from which there is no extrication, and instead of seeing him as the conquering king, you would see him as the judge who would have to depart from you if it were everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. It is not a question of whether you will meet Jesus Christ or not, it is only a question as to whether you see him as Savior or you meet him as judge. God has taken us into his confidence concerning these events that our hearts should be gripped and controlled by a confident hope, yet there can be no hope unless you know Jesus Christ personally, and it would be a privilege to talk with you when our service is concluded this evening if we can make the way of salvation more clear to you, but we offer you a Savior who is sufficient, who can remove every sin and translate you into his presence when God purposes to let his wrath fall upon this earth. Our Father in God, we do rejoice in the all-sufficiency of our Savior. We thank thee that day shall come when he hath king of kings, and Lord of lords will subject all things to his power. We thank thee that we who know Jesus Christ shall reign with him when he reigns in glory upon this transformed earth. We do pray that if there is one here who has not accepted Jesus Christ as a personal Savior, this one tonight for a simple faith might ask Christ to be Savior from King. This is us with the richness of thy blessing, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.