Millions Gone!

by Michael G. Mickey

(12-21-06)

Like everyone else, I've been busy making final preparations for Christmas and the like so activity on the site has been somewhat limited the last several days which I apologize for. As a one-man operation who only has so many hours per day to dedicate to work, family, friends and spreading the good news that Jesus Christ is coming soon, I sometimes run out of hours to get everything done I want to in a 24-hour period and, occasionally, out of strength, quite frankly. This has been one of those weeks. Hopefully, in the next few days I'm going to find a few hours to discuss a number of things I've got piled up here on the desk so bear with me, brothers and sisters. At any rate, I want to quickly share a few tidbits from the news I think may be of prophetic interest. Each of these could see millions of people end up gone from this world!

A flu pandemic could result in millions gone!

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.

Luke 21:11: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

The BBC is reporting the following (in part), which is of profound interest in light of the above:

A global flu pandemic could kill 62 million people, experts have warned.

The 1918 pandemic claimed 50 million lives, and experts in The Lancet predict the toll today would be higher than this, despite medical advances.

In the times leading up to the Tribulation Period, we see that pestilences are going to play a prominent role in the deaths of many. Inside the Tribulation Period, we see even more of the same, as recorded in Revelation 6:8:

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

A fourth of mankind will die in the first half of the Tribulation Period via war, famine, disease and, particularly, as a direct result of the beasts of the earth in some manner. As I've commented on for a long time, the current flu strain that is most expected to lead to a global flu pandemic like the one described in the BBC report linked above is the avian or bird flu virus. It is expected by health organizations around the globe that, sooner or later, bird flu is going to mutate to become transmissible between humans. If that happens, millions could be gone from the earth via a deadly disease mankind picks up from the beasts of the earth in record time! Is the stage for this to occur being set before our eyes in the news headlines of our world today? Quite possibly.

(While I'm commenting on a topic seen in Luke 21:36, although it's off this commentary's theme of "millions gone", I want to point out that the scientific community is still abuzz about the bizarre solar activity that has taken place recently I've written about in previous commentaries this month. As seen in a Eurekalert article, a reputed solar physicist is saying the recent solar flare I've pointed out could have been one of the prophesied great signs from heaven, which is ouranos {oo-ran-os'} in the original Greek, was a record-setting solar outburst.)

Millions could be gone via the Rapture of the Church

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who seems to say something off the wall almost daily, is now stating, as seen in a Breitbart.com article, that Britian, Israel and the United States will eventually disappear from the world "like the Egyptian pharaonic kings."

Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying the following, in part:

"The oppressive powers will disappear while the Iranian people will stay. Any power that is close to God will survive while the powers who are far from God will disappear like the pharaohs."

"Today, it is the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime which are doomed to disappear as they have moved far away from the teachings of God," he said in a speech in the western town of Javanroud.

"It is a divine promise."

So, considering for a moment that those of us who hold a pre-tribulational rapture doctrine to be true are correct in our theology as I wholly believe we are, what is Ahmadinejad, who has already spoken of apocalyptic events that he anticipates are going to occur very soon, going to say if the Rapture of the Church takes place soon and millions of Christians vanish from the face of the earth? I'll tell you!

He and all his Muslim brothers are going to start singing in chorus exactly what Ahmadinejad is saying right now, which is that those who have moved far from the teachings of the Islamic god, in fulfillment of "divine promise", have disappeared like the pharaohs of Egypt!

Can you imagine how emboldened the Rapture of the Church is going to leave the Muslim world when it occurs? Likewise, can you imagine how the balance of world power is going to be turned upside down in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye when the Rapture occurs?

It has been my opinion for a long time, as I have detailed in many commentaries in the past, that the Gog-Magog battle of Ezekiel 38 & 39 is going to take place in the early Tribulation Period when the peace covenant of Antichrist will have led Israel to believe that peace and safety has come to their lands at last. If my theory on that topic is accurate, perhaps what we're seeing through Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rhetoric is at least a portion of the logic that will lead the Russian-Arab confederacy to believe the hour has finally come when Israel can be wiped off the map. This may additionally serve as an explanation as to why the world outside the Russian-Arab confederacy will raise little more than a diplomatic questioning of those involved in the attempted destruction of Israel concerning their motive for attacking, as recorded in Ezekiel 38:13:

Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

In the aftermath of the Rapture of the Church, the West, with its large Christian population in comparison to the Russian-Arab confederacy described in Ezekiel 38 & 39, is going to be in utter disarray economically, socially and militarily for some time afterward. In contrast, Russia, a relatively atheistic nation due to its many years of communist rule, and the Arab confederacy, almost exclusively Muslim in population, is going to be in a prime position to make a grab for absolute power and control over the oil rich Middle East. Will these powers seize on what they will undoubtedly believe is their divine opportunity to deliver a death blow to the one non-Muslim, anti-Russian military power left in the region capable of interfering with the plans I believe they will swiftly come up with if my theory is correct? Quite possibly, especially if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to make promises concerning the future of the West that have legitimate possibilities to occur in the form of the Rapture of the Church being fulfilled as prophesied.

Think about it - and KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE SKIES!