By Gary Pettus
 

For many tuned into Biblical prophecy, Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon is one more sign that the end of the world may be near, heralding the approaching Apocalypse and the eventual Second Coming of Jesus Christ. For others, the feeling is “we’ve all been here before.”

SIGNS OF THE COMING RAPTURE: “THE PROPHETIC TOP 10″

1. Unrest in northern Israel

2. Iran’s nuclear program

3. Mass murder in Iraq

4. The supply of oil

5. Global weather changes

6. China’s growing economic and military might

7. Global terrorism

8. Nation ID initiatives

9. Infectious diseases (bird flu)

10. Russian naval base in Syria

Source: www.raptureready.com

Every rocket fired in Israel’s current war with Hezbollah is one more nail in the world’s coffin.

Earth’s clock is on Armageddon time: That’s the view of many evangelicals clued into Biblical prophecy.

“This war in the Middle East has a different feeling from the other wars,” says the Rev. Jason Dillon, associate pastor of of Parkway Pentecostal Church in Madison. “I believe the end of times is much closer now.”

READY OR NOT

For the latest word on the Rapture Index, go to www.raptureready.com.

Dillon’s belief is echoed by such national figures as the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who called this Middle East friction “a prelude or forerunner to the future Battle of Armageddon and the glorious return of Jesus Christ.”

TV evangelist Pat Robertson denies that this is “the end of it all,” but has still raised the specter of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 - in which Russia joins Muslim countries such as Iran, Lebanon and Syria to destroy Israel in what the Old Testament prophet calls “the last days.”

And, on the Rapture Ready Web site, the Rapture Index, a gauge of end-times events heralding the transporting of believers to heaven at Christ’s Second Coming, has zoomed above 150 - anything over 145 says the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are saddled up.

Although the monthlong war let up Monday as the combatants began observing a cease-fire, this truce is being called “fragile.”

And, beyond even this war, other biblical wake-up calls have signaled the Second Coming, says Dillon, who believes the establishment of the state Israel in 1948, a fulfillment of a biblical promise, “catapulted prophecy to the forefront.”

There has been no shortage of fulfilled prophecies, including “earthquakes, pestilences, famines,” Dillon says. “We’ve seen it all.”

Or we soon will. Sharon Herrington of Byram, a member of Dillon’s church, believes that within a generation, the world will explode into the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgment: Armageddon.

“This is not Armageddon but I believe we’re in World War III: the war on terrorism,” says Herrington, who attends a weekly Bible study class on the end of times.

In a view echoed by others, she says, “I believe this war will escalate into a nuclear war. The Bible says of this war that it will kill one-third of mankind.”

Israel’s battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon is part of that war, Herrington says, and therefore part of the end-of-times prophecy.

“Anything that involves Israel you pay more attention to it.”

Others say they have heard all this before.

“We saw this during the Cold War, and the beginning of Israel in 1948 and the Middle East wars in ‘67 and ‘73,” says James E. Bowley, chairman of the religious studies department of Millsaps College in Jackson.

“We saw it in the earlier crisis in Lebanon during the Carter administration.

“There are several reasons the end of times gets talked about, and the cynical reason is that people like to sell books and like others to come to their church and hear about the secret. Everyone wonders what will happen tomorrow. You pack out your church if you promise to give the answer.

“Some feel a great deal of comfort in believing they know what God’s plan is.

“But people who would consign the world to destruction tomorrow are actually damaging the possibility of peace, because they’ve given up.”

For his part, Dillon is paying attention for at least two reasons: “First, (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert has said he will bring definitive borders to Israel and do so with the international support.

“This answers God’s promise to Abraham: ‘Wherever your foot shall trod, I will give you the land.’ ”

The second point: Israel must take out Hezbollah to reach that goal, “and when that happens the confirmation of the covenant of Abraham will occur.”

For that reason, and because of God’s promise to “favor those who support Israel,” Dillon says, it’s vital that Christians back that nation in this war and other endeavors. Many do.

In a 2003 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 55 percent of white evangelical Protestants who identify themselves as born-again Christians said they sympathized with Israel, compared with 41 percent of Americans of other religious persuasions or those who called themselves secular.

Rabbi Valerie Cohen of Beth Israel Temple in Jackson, for one, is “pleased” with this support for the state of Israel, even though Christianity’s view of the Messiah is, to state the obvious, at odds with her religion’s interpretation.

“As for the end of times, Jews don’t focus on prophecies, they focus on the here and now,” she says.

“I can’t speak for all Jews, but many traditional Jews would give a sequence for the end of days, but it’s a guess. … The end of the world will come when it comes, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

“The focus should be to live our lives the best we can. If we fulfill that duty, maybe it will bring the messianic age closer.”

Still, a restored nation of Israel is a sign that the last days are upon us, many say, including Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, co-authors of the Left Behind series.

The Rev. Matthew Canada also believes Christians should search for peace, rather than prophecy, in this Middle East conflict.

“We should be saying to them, ‘You do not need to be doing this,’ rather than, ‘You’re right, and you’re wrong,’ ” says the pastor of Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church in Madison.

“This event does afford an opportunity to get our lives in order to prepare ourselves for where we want to spend eternity. But I do not believe this is an indication that the world is coming to an end.

“When that’s going to be, no one can know.”

No, as the Bible says, you can’t know the day or the hour, Dillon admits.

“If we knew it was Sept. 7, men would live horribly until Sept. 7, then get right with God. He doesn’t want a relationship with people who do that. But you can know the season.”

And the season is nearing its fearful peak, Dillon says.

“I don’t rejoice in the suffering that will come, but I do want to be with Jesus. That is my goal, to have a relationship with him for eternity. He is coming back, and in that I do rejoice.

“But I also believe that people should accept the Gospel because they choose it, not out of fear.

“Things done out of love last a lot longer than things done out of fear. Because as soon as you take that gun from my head, I’m going to do what I wanted to before it was there.”