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Chapter 4 The Battle of Armageddeon "Hold the four winds that the wind should not blow upon the earth." But along with John’s prophesy that promises this battle will come, we also have scripture that tells us it cannot happen until our God has finished His dealings with the nation of Israel. Let’s read this Word and than discuss it.. Rev. 7:1-4, And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. Verse 2, And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the Living God. And He cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth, and the sea,. Verse 3, Saying hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Verse 4, And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. In these verses we see four Angels standing on the earth and holding back the four winds from blowing on the earth. Brother Branham taught us that winds in the Bible represent war and strife.. QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 90, Now winds in the Bible mean war and strife, like in Job’s time. You remember winds came down and took the Sons---it’s trouble.(End quote). The four angels standing on the four corners of the earth are holding back the nations of the world who have in our day desired to destroy God’s chosen people. In our scriptures we see another angel having the Seal of the Living God, and He cried to the four angels holding the four winds, “Hurt not the earth till we have sealed the servants of our God.To say it another way, the Battle of Armageddon cannot happen until the two Prophets of Rev. 11:3 have preached their message to the Jews and sealed 144,000 of them with the Holy Ghost. We know that this happens during the time of the sixth seal, which is the three and one half years of great tribulation. (See Rev. 6:12-17). We want to point out how our Prophet revealed that our Sovereign God has so controlled the circumstances of the world, and of Israel, that He has kept Armageddon from erupting more than once. History shows what the Lord has done. Since A.D. 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman General Titus, God has seen to it that the Holy City has not been destroyed. But according to the Prophet Zechariah, it will be taken again during the Battle of Armageddon.). Zech. 14:1-4, Behold the day of the Lord cometh (the great tribulation) and the spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.). For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the City shall be taken, and the houses rifled and the women ravished, and half the City shall go forth to captivity-----.). Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle.). Verse 4 tells us the time of these happenings! And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley. And half the Mount shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south.). The time Jerusalem will be taken again is just before our Lord has come down on the Mount of Olives to fight and win the battle of Armageddon. When He comes He will stop the destruction and set up the one thousand year reign of peace.). Even now the Jews are crying for peace, but there will be no peace for them until they repent for the slaying of Messiah. They are still a stubborn and stiff necked people. They have more suffering ahead of them until they receive the message of the two prophets sent to seal them. They are now in a no-man’s-land, in that they no longer keep the Law of Moses concerning the sacrificing of animals, to cover their sins, neither do they accept Jesus Christ as Messiah.). Even though they are God’s chosen people and a type of His Bride, they are still under judgment and will not repent until the great tribulation strikes them. Zechariah said, “For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem, and the city SHALL BE TAKEN. It is at this time that Israel is made to repent and receive the Christ of the Gentiles.). After the Jews have received Christ, and when His feet touch down on the Mount of Olives, there will be a great earthquake. The Mount of Olives splits down the middle and forms a great valley. This writer personally believes that this is the same earthquake that destroys California. This is another sermon and we can’t go into it here, but to give you something to study on, Brother Branham said the earthquake of Zech. 14:4 is the same one spoken of in Isa.29:6 and Rev.16:9.). QUOTE: WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION ON THE MOUN- TAIN?, PAGES 15-16, Now we see a last day happening! Let’s just turn a few pages on in Zechariah, and see what He said about it. Let's turn it over then for the last days. That was the middle age, let’s turn now to the last days. And turn over to Zechariah the 14th chapter, and beginning with the 4th verse. And listen! And we’re going to read down a portion of the scripture, about nine verses, from four to nine, the last days, so listen close now. THIS IS THUS SAITH THE LORD. ). It’s the scriptures, Zech. 14. Remember Zech. 9, what it said? And they didn’t recognize it. Now what is it today? Zech. 14 speaking of His coming. (Then Brother Branham reads Zech. 14:4-5)). (Continuing quote) Another earthquake splitting open the earth! If you want to follow out a scripture here, notice in this 5th verse, it applies that the cleaving of the Mount of Olives is due to an earthquake, AND THIS IS CONFIRMED BY ISAIAH 29:6 AND REV. 16:9 EXACTLY! WHAT IS IT? The same prophet that told of His first coming saw His second coming. Notice, “As in the days of the earthquake. See what the earthquakes are doing? See the predictions of them? (End quote) These preceding statements of the prophet being true, then a study of these three places seems to indicate that this is “THE BIG ONE. “Such as was not since men were upon the earth. (Rev. 16:18)). If this be true then, the California earthquake will not be before the rapture, or even at rapture time. It will not come until Jesus returns with His Saints to end the Battle of Armageddon. Of course, we all have our own thoughts about this, and by no means do we intend to make a doctrine. ). In looking back to our text scriptures, John the Revelator was seeing in a vision this great time of trouble. He saw an angel come down from Heaven who cried to the four angels who were holding back the four winds, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea. Nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.). Verse four tells us it was the 144,000 Jews that were to be sealed. The four winds of war and strife could not take over the City of Jerusalem until the Jews were in their homeland and had been sealed with the Holy Ghost. The angel was saying that the war to end all wars could not come until God saved Israel in one day. (The 144,000)). We will see that for almost 2000 years now the Lord has held back the four winds and has not allowed Jerusalem to be taken. But it will happen, even as we have read in Zechariah 14:1-4.). Also, in Ezekiel, we have a type of what is going to happen to Jerusalem in the last days. Ezekiel saw the terrible destruction of the city by Titus in A.D. 70. (See Ez. 9:1-7) But it did not happen until the Elect of God had been marked in their foreheads. During tribulation the city will be taken again, but not before the two prophets have preached and caused the 144,000 to be sealed. Then the destroying angels were not to touch those who had been sealed.). Brother Branham said the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70 is a perfect parallel (type) of Rev.7.). QUOTE: THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, PAGE 442, Now you see, and then (In A.D.70) all of Jerusalem was destroyed. Now this is a perfect parallel of Rev. chpt. 7. (End quote)). What did he mean? He said, in essence, that the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was a type of what will happen in the city when the chosen 144,000 Jews are sealed and saved in the endtime.). In Ezekiels day, he saw the destruction of A.D. 70 coming, and also saw the chosen saved out of it. This vision of Ezekiel was fulfilled in A.D. 70, with the Elect escaping before Titus broke through the walls and started the slaughter. Then in Rev.7 we see John the Revelator’s prophesy of the angels still holding the four winds at the time of the end (During tribulation), until the elect Jews are sealed. Ezekiel saw the A.D. 70 destruction and John saw the destruction that will come to Jerusalem during the great tribulation. The parallel that our Prophet spoke of was the saving of the chosen out of the city before each destruction. We are looking at how our God has held back the four winds, or the terrible Battle of Armageddon, until the last Gentile has come in, and He then turns back to Israel and saves the chosen Jews out of the tribulation period. Both must be saved before He unleashes His fury at Armageddon. The Gentile Bride escapes this tribulation by going up in a rapture to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and the 144,000 Jews are saved after it has started by the preaching of the two prophets. Let us now look at history and see how our Lord has controlled the circumstances of Israel, and of the world, in that He would not allow the last great war until both Gentile and Jew were saved. He has held back the four winds (War and strife). Brother Branham declared that World War I would have resulted in Armageddon had God not stopped it. QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 93, Now the winds (Wars) had all started in, and they would have covered the earth and the Battle of Armageddon would have taken place in the first world war-----but God stopped it. (End quote) The 144,000 had not been sealed. Much was to happen before Jerusalem could be taken again. QUOTE: C.O.D. BOOK, PAGE 94, And World War I stopped in the eleventh month of the year, the eleventh day of the month, and the eleventh hour of the day. So that the eleventh hour people could come in. (End quote) In other words, God would not allow W.W.I to end in the Battle of Armageddon because the Jews, who are the eleventh hour people, still had to be sealed, and it was not yet God’s time. Let me drop in something right here. When will America be destroyed as the prophet saw in his vision? No doubt we have all wondered when this will be. I believe he gave us a clue in the following statement. QUOTE: REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, PAGES 445-446, Now in 1914, the world went to war, and they have never been at peace since. Constantly swinging in (Constantly turning toward Israel to destroy her), and they are doing the very same thing yet. And what were they (The angels) doing? Holding (The four winds) Oh God have mercy. HOLDING THAT GREAT THING I SAW IN THE VISION, THE WHOLE THING COME TO DESTRUCTION. HOLDING THE ATOMIC, HOLDING THE WARS SO THEY DON’T DESTROY THEMSELVES UNTIL THE THING COMES TO DESTROY IT (Until God’s time). Until Israel returns back and gets herself together. And then the message will go to Israel and she will be sealed with that seal of the Holy Ghost. See! After the Gentiles are called out (After the rapture). (End quote) Could he be saying that God is holding the destruction of AMERICA until the last Gentile is brought in and Israel is sealed during Tribulation? It would seem that this is what he indicated. We can only speculate, and again we would not build a doctrine from this. God stopped W.W.I by a miracle because it wasn’t time for the 144,000 to be sealed, and Armageddon could not happen as yet. QUOTE: REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, PAGES 442-443, And so then, all of them were marching to war. You well remember it, in 1914. Now, isn’t it strange that right in the (Book) The Decline Of The World’s War, I have the volumes of it, in volume II, about page 44, that they do not know to this day who stopped that war. Kaiser Wilhelm said he never issued any such thing. But all of a sudden it stopped and nobody knows why----. It was God that stopped it, to fulfill His Word. Another angel said, “Wait a minute, don’t do that, we’ve got to seal these servants of our God in their foreheads first. (End quote) God was holding back the four winds in 1914-1918 and the battle of all battles could not happen. Now let’s look at more history and see how He continued to hold the four winds through the last 83 years, still refusing to allow the world to engage in that last terrible war. And that in spite of the fact that certain men have, more than once, determined to destroy Israel. After W.W. I, came W.W. II 23 years later. Hitler had it in his mind to conquer the world and destroy all Jews in the process. There is no doubt but what W.W. II would have ended in Armageddon if God had not again intervened. Russia was our ally in this war. We remember how that Germany had swept everything before it. Their armored tank divisions crushed everything in their way and they had moved almost to Moscow. Had they continued their drive they would have conquered the world. There was nothing in the natural realm to stop them. But for some strange and unknown reason the order came from Hitler to stop the attack, just short of entering Moscow. Later, when he ordered them to move in for the kill, the winter rains had set in and the heavy tanks sank in the mud. This saved Russia, and with her help, the U.S. finally won the war. The Russian army was the first into Berlin and Germany was defeated. Why? God was holding back the four winds, it was not time for Jerusalem to be taken, the 144, 000 had not been sealed. Then in 1948, when the other nations of the world had declared Israel to be a nation, the whole Arab world declared war against her and moved to wipe them off the earth. God’s little chosen nation was so outnumbered that again, in the natural, there was no way for her to survive. But God was still holding the four winds. He fought for the Jews and would not allow them to be overrun. Miracle after miracle was reported, as God caused the Israeli bullets to go around corners to kill the enemy and sent flights of hornets to route their soldiers. God’s tiny country threw back the Arab hordes and saved Jerusalem once again. Then came 1967 and the famed Six Day War. Again Ishmael’s descendants moved to take the all important city of Jerusalem. I watched this war on T.V. while living in New Mexico. God very clearly held the four winds. Again miracle after miracle took place in favor of Israel. And, in only six days she had won another war that to the world had seemed totally impossible. God held the four winds. Once again Rev. 7:3 was set forth, where it has been written, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, not the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Six more years passed and we come to 1973 and the Syrian attack on the Israeli Golan Heights. On Saturday at 2:00 P.M., on the 6th of October, the Syrians launched an all out attack on the Golan Heights with the intention of taking this position and then sweeping down on the city of Jerusalem slaying it’s occupants. Under the command of these Syrian generals were more tanks and artillery than any of Hitler’s Panzer generals ever thought of having. We know this now by reading the history books. Israel was outnumbered by 9 to 1. History says the Syrian generals had mapped out a plan that, in the natural ways of war, could not fail. One writer in reporting this war, stated, They expected to fall like wolves on the unsuspecting Sheep of the Israeli fold, but discovered them to be more like big horned rams than docile sheep. The situation that developed over the next 36 hours would prove to be the gravest test of Israeli arms since 1948. But by the end of the 2nd day the Syrians were driven back, leaving the battlefield littered with burned out tanks and slain men. Again, we saw it on T.V. True to His Word, God again protected Israel; the great war could not come, the 144,000 were still not sealed. The four winds were still being held. In that 1973 war, when Israel seemed doomed, her military leaders were preparing to launch planes carrying nuclear weapons. History now says they had 12 plutonium fission bombs, and had already started to load them into planes. It would have been enough to destroy the entire Syrian army in a matter of a few minutes. But, suddenly the tide of war turned and Israel began to win. People who have not read the true account of this war have no idea how close the world came to seeing an all out nuclear war. There is no doubt that this would have resulted in Armageddon had God not suddenly turned the tide and given Israel an unexpected victory. They held their nuclear bombs, and once again the Holocaust was held at bay. God held the four winds. We come now to 1991 and the Persian Gulf War. Hussain had started a war against helpless neighbors that was geared to eventually take Jerusalem. If the U.S. had not intervened, no doubt Armageddon would have resulted, as Israel would have resorted to her nuclear weapons in order to save her people. Again, God fought for Israel as our American troops experienced unexpected victories against the hordes of enemy troops. Great loss of American lives had been expected, but God fought for Israel in that He protected our troops while thousands upon thousands of the enemy were slain. We saw a mighty miracle as the war was won with very little loss of life on our side. God still holds the four winds, but they will be loosed. The Battle of Armageddon will happen; it is on the way right now. But first, there must be a resurrection and rapture. When the Bride goes up, Israel has three and one half more years until her final destruction. The Battle of Armageddon will destroy Jerusalem one last time. God has held the four winds six times; seven is His number of completion. Could the next war in the Holy Land be the last war before the thousand year reign? It seems quite possible! If so, the four winds will be loosed this seventh time, and the blood will flow up to the horses bridles. Now, we come to the climaxing statement of our message. For several years now, theologians have attempted to figure the time of the end, basing their calculations on the date of 1948, the date that the nations of the world declared Israel a nation again. In the DANIEL SEVENTY WEEKS BOOK, there are some drastically important statements concerning Israel’s standing as a nation. Although man has declared her as a nation, it seems that the Lord showed our prophet that God has not recognized her as such. QUOTE: SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL, PAGE 30, You’d better be waking up. You’ve heard it and heard it, but it’s going to be (for) the last time one of these days. Israel’s returning to her homeland. WHAT DAY THAT GOD DETERMINES ISRAEL TO BE A NATION, THAT’S THE DAY THAT THERE’LL NEVER BE ANOTHER GENTILE SAVED. (End quote) The prophet is saying that even though man declared Israel a Nation, God has not, and when He does so the times of the Gentiles are over. QUOTE: SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL, PAGE 34, The Nations have declared them a nation----. When that hits we’re near the end. The Gentile church is gone. SO MOST ANY TIME GOD COULD SAY ISRAEL IS MY PEOPLE. WHEN THAT IS (HAPPENS) THE GENTILES ARE FINISHED. (End quote) Again Brother Branham states that God has not yet recognized Israel as a Nation. QUOTE: SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL, PAGE 81, They are what now? I just caught it just now, fresh. They are now a nation recognized (By man). Is that right? BUT THEY HAVE NOT THEIR TEMPLE WORSHIP YET. AND WHEN THEY ESTABLISH THE TEMPLE WORSHIP, THE CHURCH (BRIDE) WILL BE GONE. GOD WILL BE DEALING WITH THE JEWS AS A NATION. (But, at this time he is not.) (End quote) Can we see what he is saying? God has not declared Israel a nation because they are not walking in the light He gave Moses for them. They are not sacrificing animal blood to cover their sins, neither do they accept Jesus as Messiah. They are in a no-man’s-land; they are nowhere with God. He clearly said that when Israel starts their temple worship, which includes ANIMAL SACRIFICES, THEN GOD WILL BE DEALING WITH THEM AS A NATION, or then He will have declared them a nation. Even now, Israel is training priests to shed the blood of animals, as Moses’ law demanded. The book of Daniel, and our prophet, declares that the daily sacrifice will again be set up. When the Jews are again walking in all the light they have, God claims them and sends the two prophets of Rev. 11:3 to preach the truth of this hour to them. Already Israel claims to have found the strain of cattle from which the sacrificial red heifer came. They are being shipped from the U.S. to Israel. A few months ago I read an article quoting one of the officials in the Jewish Church. When asked how long it would take them to build the temple once they started, he replied, “We can build it in days. We have it pre-fabed. (Already built in sections and ready to put together) How close are we to the last day of the Gentiles? The day that Israel kills the first animal sacrifice God will declare her a nation again. This means He has turned from the Gentiles to Israel and there will never be another Gentile saved. (Notwithstanding those who had an experience with God before this time, but who are not Bride, can be saved during tribulation.) LOOK UP, LITTLE BRIDE, FOR YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH! |
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