Revelation 11:1-2 “Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. (2) But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.”
There is one more important aspect to this conflict that needs to be mentioned, which is the fact that the Palestinian expulsion from the West Bank will obviously include the city of Jerusalem. So why is that important? The moment the Jews take full occupation of Jerusalem they will proceed to demolish the Muslim shrines called the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa Mosque. The reason the Jews will do that is because those shrines have been built on the site of the “temple mount” i.e. the site where the Jewish temple once stood. And so once the Muslim shrines have been demolished the Jews will proceed to rebuild the third Jewish temple on that same site. Because this particular site is revered by Muslims as being one of their most holy sites, such an action taken by Israel will be viewed by the Muslims as being an unforgivable attack on the Islamic faith, and they will bide their time waiting for the day when such a blatant insult can be avenged. The above quoted passage of scripture confirms to us that the third Jewish temple will be built, by alluding to the fact that the Jewish temple will be a focal point for the anti-Christ in the later part of his reign. The context of this passage is that the Lord showed John the apostle a vision of the temple, and he was instructed to measure its dimensions. John was shown this vision in the year 96 AD, which was twenty six years after the destruction of the second Jewish temple in the year 70 AD. And so clearly John was shown the third Jewish temple which had not yet been built. In this passage John was instructed to exclude the court outside of the temple because it had been given to the Gentiles for a period of forty two months. The forty two month period mentioned in this passage refers to the later half of the reign of the anti-Christ. In other words the anti-Christ will set up his reign from the temple in Jerusalem. This truth is confirmed to us by the apostle Paul when he tells us that the anti-Christ will sit as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). And so we see that there are numerous reasons why God will restore both Israel’s borders and the temple at that time. Nevertheless as we will see in a later section, one of the reasons is to ultimately prepare the way for the reign of the anti-Christ.
Revelation 12:7-8 “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, (8) but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.”
After Israel’s borders have been fully restored, a period of peace and stability will return to this region, albeit a strained peace between Israel and the ten Islamic states. This period of peace should last for at least seventy years. So why do I say that? God gave instructions to Israel as to how they were to conduct their affairs after He restores their borders in the last days. Among the instructions given, God spoke about the leader of Israel giving some of his inherited land to one of his servants. God said that the gifted land shall belong to the servant until the year of liberty, after which it must return to the ownership of the leader of Israel (Ezekiel 46:17). The year of liberty takes place every fifty years. And so God would not have given the Jews this instruction if Israel was not going to govern the territory in question for at least fifty years, if not longer. The period of relative peace and stability will not be isolated to this region however, but will extend globally. So why is that? One of the main reasons is because all the nations of the world will be recovering from the effects of the massive destruction and loss of life caused by the global nuclear conflict. So how long will it take for the nations of the world to recover from such a conflict? Having incurred a ten percent loss in its population, it took Germany approximately twenty years to recover from WW2, even with significant outside help[1]. It is estimated that the nuclear powers could lose up to sixty percent of their populations in a nuclear war, and seeing that the nuclear powers are also the major economies of the world, they can expect very little outside help to recover. Therefore it is not unreasonable to expect that the global recovery from a nuclear conflict will take at least one full generation, i.e. approximately seventy years. And so no nation will be interested in fomenting any further conflict during that time. There is also a spiritual reason why peace and stability will return to the earth at that time, which is revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture. In this passage we see that there is coming a time when Michael and his angels will go to war with Satan and his angels. The purpose of that war will be to expel Satan and his angels from their heavenly domain. It is after the close of the global nuclear war on earth that this war in heaven will finally break out. And so we see that when war breaks out in heaven it will result in peace breaking out on earth. So why is that? The reason is because Satan and his angels will be fully focused on the war in heaven, thus preventing them from advancing any of their agendas on the earth during that period. This passage goes on to tell us that Michael and his angels will prevail against Satan and his angels in that war, thus finally forcing them out of the heavenly realm. Someone said but I thought that Jesus said that He already saw Satan cast out of heaven like lightning (Luke 10:18). Scripture reveals to us that there is more than one heaven, for the apostle Paul mentioned that on one occasion the Lord had taken him up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2). And so the incident that our Lord referred to when He saw Satan cast out, took place in the heaven where God’s throne is located. Nevertheless Satan and his angels have always dwelt in a heavenly realm which is located just above the earth, for the scripture teaches us that they are “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). And so we see that Michael and his angels will prevail against Satan and his angels, by finally casting them out of their heavenly realm to the earth. Nevertheless it is during this same period that the ten Islamic nations will become unified, thus paving the way for the anti-Christ to finally be manifested, i.e. the stage will finally be set.
Michael E.B. Maher
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