What in the World Is Going On? Chapter Outtakes
Chapter 1: The Israel Connection
The story of Israel begins at the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis. The very proportion of the coverage tells us something about the importance of Israel. Only two chapters are given to the whole story of creation. One chapter records the fall of man. Eight chapters cover the thousands of years from creation to the time of Abram. Then we find that fully thirty-eight chapters deal with the life stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the progenitors of the Jewish race. Apparently God finds Abraham and his descendants to be of enormous importance. (13-14/241). . .
To this very day, the issue of who controls the Promised Land is the most volatile in international politics. But we need not worry; the right to the Promised Land has already been determined by the only One who has the authority to determine it. The land is called holy because it belongs to God. The Bible tells us that the earth is the Lord’s to do with as He wills. In His covenant with Abraham, God designated who would control this land: He gave it to Abraham and his descendants, the people of Israel. (17-18/241)
Chapter 2: The Crude Awakening
Oil is the new gold in the world economy, and more than any factor other than the nation of Israel, oil holds the key to the prophetic events of the future. Oil explains why the Bible focuses its end-time attention on the Middle East. The demand for oil in America has outstripped its capacity to produce the black gold, and the same holds true for much of the world. Therefore, since the discovery of huge supplies of oil in the Middle Eastern countries, world attention has been focused on that area. . . . Few would question the fact that oil has become the new basis for our world economy. It is now the stuff of life, the resource most highly valued by the industrialized and emerging nations of the world, the blood that flows through their economic veins and gives life to prosperity in today’s global economy. The greatest source of that lifeblood is now in the Middle East, and so that is where the eyes of the world are focused. (36-37/241)
Chapter 3: Modern Europe . . . Ancient Rome
The future manifestation of the Roman Empire that Daniel prophesied twenty-five hundred years ago will take the form of a coalition or confederation of ten world leaders and will encompass the same territory as the historic Roman Empire. And today we can see that coalition taking shape right before our eyes! It began as early as 1930 when the French statesman Aristide Briand attempted to enlist twenty-six nations in what he first called "the United States of Europe" and modified to "the European Union." In his proposal he said, “The nations of Europe today must unite in order to live and prosper.” The European press gave Briand’s novel idea little attention and nothing came of it.
That is nothing came of it at that time. But Briand’s call for European unity was merely one world war ahead of the curve. Less than twenty years later, one of the world’s most respected leaders issued the same call. In 1946…Winston Churchill forcefully asserted. . . “We must build a United States of Europe.” Churchill’s call initiated a series of steps toward unification; some were faltering, but others gained traction. (67/241)
Chapter 4: Islamic Terrorism
No doubt the most frightening word associated with Islam is jihad. Sometimes called the "sixth pillar" of Islam, jihad actually means "struggle." The "Greater Jihad" is the inner struggle of each Muslim to submit to Allah. The "Lesser Jihad" is the outward struggle to defend the Islamic community. This is the jihad that strikes fear in the hearts of non-Muslims. Militant Muslims take jihad to mean more than just passive defense of Islam; to them, it authorizes the expansion of the Islamic religion even by means of deadly aggression. . . . While the majority of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims want no part of this deadly violence and attempt to live in peace with their neighbors, the number of radicals who preach violence and terror is mushrooming around the world. (87-88/241)
Chapter 5: The Vanished Without a Trace
There are no events that must take place before the Rapture occurs. It’s all a matter of God’s perfect timing…Since the Rapture takes place seven years before the Second Advent, the signs that point to the Second Advent cast shadows that clue us in to the imminent Rapture. The fact that the Rapture precedes the Second Advent makes the signs portending the Advent all the more immediate and ominous. The Rapture will give irrefutable confirmation of end time events seven years before they come to pass for those who are left behind.
The New Testament indicates that the Rapture of those who have put their trust in Christ is the next major event on the prophetic calendar. In other words, the Rapture awaits us on the horizon. . . it could happen at any moment. (108-109/241)
Chapter 6: Does America Have a Role in Prophecy?
Clearly America did not become the land of the free and the home of the brave by blind fate or a happy set of coincidences. A benevolent God was hovering over this nation from her very conception so that today, although America has only 5 percent of the world’s population, she has more than 50 percent of the modern luxuries that characterize civilization.
Why has God blessed this nation above all other lands? Why has America in her short history outstripped the wealth, power, and influence of all ancient and modern civilizations? Can God have blessed a nation so richly without her having a pivotal purpose? What is God’s plan for America? What is its place in the end-time prophecy? These are questions many people are asking today as the watch events coalesce toward world crises. They wonder how America fits into what is going on in the world. (126/241)
Chapter 7: When One Man Rules the World
When I first began studying prophecy nearly forty years ago, I encountered the Bible’s prediction that one man would eventually take control of the entire world. Frankly, I could not imagine how such a thing would ever happen. But since the Bible presented this as a major part of the end-time landscape, I believed it and preached it, even though I could not comprehend it.
Today it is much easier to envision the possibility of such a world ruler. Technology has given us instant global communication. CNN is seen everywhere in the world. The Internet and satellite cell phones reach every country on the face of the earth. Air transportation has shrunk the planet to the point where we can set foot on the soil of any nation in a matter of hours. I am told that there are now missiles that can reach any part of the world in less than thirty minutes. . .
There are also other factors that make the ascendance of a global leader more plausible than ever before. The Bible predicts that worldwide chaos, instability, and disorder will increase as we approach the end of this age. (145/241)
Chapter 8: The New Axis of Evil
On January 29, 2002 in his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush used the term “axis of evil” for the first time. He identified Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as “states. . .[who are] arming to threaten the peace of the world. . . . These regimes” he said “pose a grave threat and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred.” . . . On May 6, 2002 US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton gave a speech titled, “Beyond the Axis of Evil” in which he added three more rogue states to the axis: Libya, Syria, and Cuba. Today the term Axis of Evil includes all six states.
One nation on this Axis of Evil list is of special interest to us because we find that it is also on God’s list. That nation and that list are found in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. These chapters, written some 2600 years ago, give us one of the most important and dogmatic prophecies in all Scripture. (165/241)
Chapter 9: Arming for Armageddon
Armageddon. The very word chills the soul. Probably there are few adults who are not familiar with that word and what it implies. Why, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, are our national leaders beginning to use that doomsday word in their speaking and writing? I believe it is because they can see how modern weaponry and international tensions are showing how quickly global equilibrium could get out of control, leading to a cataclysmic war like the world has never seen before.
Our nation is no stranger to war. According to the US Army Military Institute, the United States has been involved in twenty-nine wars or military conflicts. This averages out to one war to every eight years of America’s history. . .The Bible tells us that there is yet to be another war to be fought on this earth. This war, called Armageddon, makes all the wars America has fought to date look like minor skirmishes. (192/241)
Chapter 10: The Return of the King
The second coming of Christ is a central theme of much of the Bible, and it is one of the best-attested promises in all of Scripture. Christians can rest in the sure conviction that just as Jesus came to earth the first time, so He will return at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation. . .
Christ's return will be amplified by a devastating spectacle that will make Hollywood disaster movies look like Saturday morning child’s fare. The world will see and recognize its rightful Lord and King. Whereas He came the first time in humility and simplicity, this time His glory and majesty will be spectacularly displayed for all to see. (213;219/241)