Expert: Dr Eddy Cheong - 9/28/2009

Question
Dr. Cheong:
Great answers on past questions.  You have good insight.
My question is this:
How do you see this threat of Iran, in building nueclear weapons, in the context of Revelation?  Should Christians pray that this would not happen?  Do you feel(opinion based) that this will lead to the end day? Or it could be another Nazi rise by an evil dictator?  Nobody in the world wants that massacre to happen again, figuring the death toll that was paid.
Any of your biblical knowledge, and your own opinion too, would be so welcomed.
thank you.

Answer
Question:
Dr. Cheong:

Great answers on past questions. You have good insight.

My question is this:

How do you see this threat of Iran, in building nueclear weapons, in the
context of Revelation? Should Christians pray that this would not
happen? Do you feel(opinion based) that this will lead to the end day?
Or it could be another Nazi rise by an evil dictator? Nobody in the
world wants that massacre to happen again, figuring the death toll that
was paid.

Any of your biblical knowledge, and your own opinion too, would be so
welcomed.

thank you.

Leah (USA)

ANSWER

There are events in the world which we can influence (through prayer and intercession) and other events in the world which appear to have a fixed outcome spiritually and prophetically. For example, prayer cannot change the fact that in the future THE ANTICHRIST will appear and wage war against Israel at the end of the age.

In Matthew Chapter 24, our Lord gave us a glimpse of the unfolding of future events…

Matt 24:3 -8 (Amplified)
 3While He was seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately and said, Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age?

4Jesus answered them, Be careful that no one misleads you [deceiving you and leading you into error].
   5For many will come in (on the strength of) My name [[b]appropriating the name which belongs to Me], saying, I am the Christ (the Messiah), and they will lead many astray.
   6And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
   7For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in place after place;
   8All this is but the beginning [the early pains] of the [c]birth pangs [of the [d]intolerable anguish].
Our Lord says that towards the end of the age there will be wars and rumors of wars and nations/kingdoms will rise up against each other. So the question on peoples’ minds would be wars and conflicts have always been a part of human history, what then is the significance of the above scriptural passages? The answer is in Verse 8.
“ALL THIS IS BUT THE BEGINNING OF BIRTH PANGS”. As you know when a woman goes into labor, the birth pangs become increasingly frequent and more intense as the time of the actual birth becomes nearer. So, in effect our Lord is saying you will see an acceleration of historical events (in terms of wars and conflicts) before the actual end comes.
Iran is Persia in the Bible and there is no record of Persia being mentioned in the New Testament. But in Ezekiel Chapter 8, there is prophetic evidence of Persia (Iran) rising up against Israel (with a host of other nations)…
Ezekiel Chapter 8 Part of verse 2 to verse 9……
'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [b] Meshech and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. 5 Persia, Cush [c] and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.
7 " 'Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. 8 After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. 9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.
Israel has Nuclear arms (an open secret) and it is sheer folly for any nation or nations to rise against Israel not equipped with this destructive facility. We are past the stage of trench fighting (as in World War one) and beyond the use of grenades and hand to hand combat in deciding outcomes of modern warfare.
It is an unchangeable and undeniable fact that the AntiChrist will rise up with a host of nations against Israel in the final end of endtimes (and Iran will be one of the nations)…
Revelation 16:12-14
12The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13Then I saw three evil[a] spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
Armageddon  will be the final battleground…
Rev:16:16
16Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The following verses suggest a nuclear catastrophe (as no conventional weapon can decimate a mountain and vaporize an island as mentioned in verse 20)…

Rev 16:17- 21
17The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!" 18Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. 21From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
As mentioned in verse 21, some of mankind will continue to be unrepentant in the face of even a nuclear war. Our job is to pray and help those who are willing to be saved enter into the Kingdom of our God.