ExpatSingapore - Euphrates River

Fulfilling Bible prophecy : Reported in The New York Times and duplicated in The Straits Times yesterday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/world/middleeast/14euphrates.html

The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilization that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, has left fishermen impoverished and has depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2016;&version=31;

To quote from The Book of Revelation Unveiled http://www.ucg.org/booklets/RV/destruction-satan-kingdom.asp :

The seven last plagues

"Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, 'Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth'" (Revelation 16:1). God has carefully chosen each of these seven punishments. Each one will cause the kingdom of the Beast to reap what it has sown.

Each is directly related to the sins of that evil system as a whole, a system focused on enjoying pleasures and riches regardless of the harm inflicted on others. Many of those living in it who have understood and practiced what is true and just have been persecuted and killed because they were out of step with that society's twisted views and attitudes.

Notice the attitude of people in general "in the last days." Paul describes them as "lovers of themselves, lovers of money … without self-control, brutal, … lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

He describes them as obsessed with knowledge but woefully lacking in understanding—"always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (verse 7). This is a thoroughly deceived society.

God shows that He will be able to reach their blinded minds only by causing them to reap what they have been sowing. That is what He intends to accomplish with the seven last plagues.

"The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped his image" (Revelation 16:2, NIV). Their misguided worship—their form of godliness without substance—has been the prime cause of the pain inflicted on God's servants. So the first plague turns that anguish back on its perpetrators.

"The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died" (verse 3, NIV). The kingdom of the Beast had been systematically killing the servants of God. Now the sea becomes a lake of blood—an escalation of the earlier second trumpet plague. Densely populated coastal areas will be blanketed with the stench of blood and dead fish. The returning Christ will force those supporting the Beast's warfare against His servants to be personally overtaken with the stench and repugnance of death.

"The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water [intensifying the impact of the earlier third trumpet plague], and they became blood. Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: 'You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged; for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.' And I heard the altar respond: 'Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments'" (verses 4-7, NIV). Remember, all of this is happening very quickly "in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb" (Revelation 14:10).

"The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him" (Revelation 16:8-9, NIV).

Satan's kingdom is founded on a "form of godliness" (2 Timothy 3:5) that has consistently substituted many of the traditions that began in ancient Babylon for the commandments of God. His kingdom has been at "war with [those] … who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 12:17). Therefore God, who has control of everything everywhere, will turn against that kingdom the very sun they unwittingly still worship.

The modern custom of substituting Sun day—the day originally dedicated by the pagans for worshipping the sun—in place of the biblical seventh-day Sabbath is one clear example of such worship.

Also, the custom of keeping Christmas comes from another ancient tradition of celebrating the annual "rebirth" of the sun at the winter solstice. As almost any encyclopedia will tell you, Dec. 25 was celebrated in ancient pagan religions as the birthday of the sun, then later adopted as the supposed birthday of Christ. (To better understand God's perspective on such practices, be sure to read Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Observe?)

Jesus reprimanded the people of His century for substituting human traditions for God's commands: "In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" and "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition" (Mark 7:7, 9).

"The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done" (Revelation 16:10-11, NIV). God now adds the terror of total darkness (more so than in the earlier fourth trumpet plague) to the pain of the sores, the stench of blood and the excruciating heat they are already experiencing. Darkness is an appropriate plague because of the spiritual darkness the Beast has cast upon the world.
The nations gather to fight Christ

"The 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. Then I saw three evil 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. They 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 … Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon" (verses 12-16, NIV).

Again let's remember that the seven last plagues are the culmination of the seventh trumpet or the third woe. As we saw earlier, the sixth trumpet (the second woe) introduced a global military onslaught on a scale never before seen. Now the sixth of the seven last plagues presents a mobilization to the final throes of this struggle.

In anticipation of Christ's appearance in the clouds, God has allowed Satan and his demons to create seemingly miraculous signs to motivate world leaders to move their armies into the Holy Land. While their initial intent may be to fight each other, they will join forces against the returning Christ. Satan's objective has always been to fight Christ at His coming, using the armies of the world.

The armies are now gathered at Armageddon (the Greek form of the Hebrew Har Megiddo, or "hill of Megiddo," about 55 miles north of Jerusalem), apparently on the vast open plain that lies to the east of this site. The final battle, to take place at Jerusalem (see Zechariah 14), is about to begin.

"Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, 'It is done!'" (Revelation 16:17). All of God's efforts to reason with human beings are now over. Yet humanity still stubbornly refuses to repent.

As mankind's Savior descends to earth, John explains that "great Babylon" is "remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath" (verse 19).

This is accomplished partly by "a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth" (verse 18). Islands and mountains disappear as the earth shakes and shudders (verse 20).

Notice what accompanies these vast earthly convulsions: "From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each" batter the earth and its inhabitants (verse 21, NIV). Satan's modern "Babylonian" kingdom is being systematically demolished.