Unraveling Revelation

AS WAR continues in Ukraine and reignites between Israel and Hamas, we discuss what appears to be a deliberate effort to trigger World War 3.Why would European leaders insist on continuing a war with Russia that Ukraine cannot win even with Europe’s direct involvement? What will emerge from the fractured state of Syria? Why does Hamas persist in a conflict that’s seen its home destroyed and its people displaced?The answers can only be spiritual because otherwise they make no sense. Ultimately, we’ll look back on these wars as preliminaries to the war that ends with Armageddon.

THE WARS of Antichrist will be fought in the heavens as much as on Earth—and the objective is determining who’s resurrected at the end of the age.This sounds “out there,” but we have prophecies to back this up: Isaiah 26:13–19 explicitly foretells a day when the Rephaim, the demonic spirits of the Nephilim, “will not arise.” We think this is what Ezekiel meant when he wrote that the Travelers, a word used by the Canaanites for the spirits of the Rephaim, would be “blocked” at the end of the war of Gog and Magog (Eze. 39:11).We also discuss the saints of Daniel 7:21–27 and a parallel verse in Revelation 13:7, noting that the Aramaic word translated “saints” in Daniel 7 is rendered “holy ones” in Daniel 4:13 and 17 in parallel with “Watchers.” In short, the little horn of Daniel 7, the Antichrist, who “made war with the saints and prevailed over them” is not fighting against humans faithful to God, but to loyal angels as part of this “Resurrection war.”

THE SEVEN ANGELS who pour out the wrath of God will reverse an ancient pagan ritual that required humans to pour out drink offerings to the spirits of the dead.We discuss the kispum ritual of the Amorite neighbors of ancient Israel, its connection to the cult of the dead, the dolmens that surrounded the city of Sodom, the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 (repeated in Revelation 15), and Jesus’ baptism by John in Bashan (not Bethany!) across the Jordan.