Swords & Sickles

Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate for war;
    stir 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 a warrior.”

Joel 3:9-10

Consecrate them, says the LORD! Yes. It is a holy war – war between the Lord God and those who hold to their sins, following idols, false prophets, foolish sages and lying leaders.

What has been will be and what has never before been seen will blind the eyes of the nations.

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Joel 3:

Borders and Nations Destroyed

By what proxy have the nations divided Tyre and Sidon to the spoils of nations beyond the valley of destruction?

Have the people not fled for their lives by land and by sea to places where they remain an enemy?

Though you rebuild fallen towers and repair the breach of five-walled fortresses, refugees will yet invade your borderless regions. Their helpless will expose the evil of princes; their plight unveils the nakedness of greed.

Has anything changed? Are these last times so different than the demise of the godless in the days of Joel?

Six centuries later Peter would preach the words of Joel’s prophesy fulfilled by the Holy Spirit speaking through a few Apostles heard by the crowd in many languages. [Acts 2:16-21] The last days have begun, Peter preaches, with the incarnation of Christ Jesus and the Lord’s crucifixion for our sins and His resurrection and ascension to the Throne of the LORD!

It is the Lamb of God who will judge. He was not a sword-wielding conquering King, general or prophet. God’s own compassion for the nations sacrificed the promised king of the jews as full payment for our sins, even the sins of His own enemies.

The Rumblings of Peace

One of the Apostles of Jesus lived to see Jerusalem fall once more under the domination of Rome. John wrote letters of love to the churches of Asia (modern day Turkey). Then as the last living Disciple prophesy came to John.

Rome has since fallen. A false prophet emerged from a cave to conquer the continents. Wars to end all wars. Emperors and dictators and despots have risen with sword and perished in humiliation. Even Israel is replanted after shameful killings of the remnant.

Only the message of the Lamb remains viable – a call to repentance and redemption in the blood of love, rather than the blood of war. Like in times before the falls of the mighty some claim peace, but it is war they invite. It is the Lord who will judge. Hear the Truth of these last days:

Revelation 6:1-8 excerpt

1. And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
2. And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
3. And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.
4. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

Death Tolls of War

• Current estimate of the population of the earth: 7,404,976,783
  • a fourth of the earth killed = 1,851,244,195
  • 9/11 Death toll           = 2,996
  • 2016 Migrant deaths = 4,310 of 243,000+ war refugees
  • Syrian war deaths      = c.300,000-400,000
  • Abortion deaths         = 40,000,000 – 50,000,000
  • WWII deaths              = 50,000,000 – 80,000,000
• The current combined populations of China, Russia and the US = 1,831,278,025

I am not suggesting that these three empires will be those destroyed in the end. The number of souls tormented and killed on the earth will exceed the total number of people living in these three earthly super-powers!

Our sin is rampant! The judgment of evil is inevitable.

The Lamb of God IS and will be, forever, Lord and Savior!

He did not come to the world with a sword of power or a sickle to reap the riches of other lands. No, Christ Jesus came into the world as a Lamb of sacrifice for our sins. He will return on the clouds as John as prophesied.

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Revelation 6:

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. ¹⁰ They cried out with a loud voice,

“O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

¹¹ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

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