Wars and Rumors of Wars

One source said there are currently thirty-two conflicts around the world. We are most familiar with the smoke of war rising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Hamas invading Israel this week (October 2023) from Gaza. The war in Israel seems to be ramping up as Israel readies to destroy Hamas. We see wars and hear rumors of wars.

President Woodrow Wilson spoke about the Great War (WW1) as, “This is the war to end all wars.” If he could come back today, I am sure he would want some hot sauce to use on the words he would eat. By the way, he borrowed and slightly changed the phrase originally coined by H. G. Wells, a British author, who said, “The war that will end war.” Either version is a cruel joke.

In our broken and fallen world, wars have been a constant in our history. Leaders, tyrants, and lunatics masquerading as leaders have led us into war for many different reasons. Peace-loving leaders have often been forced into war to keep their people from being destroyed or conquered.

Conquest is an identical twin to war. In our present culture, we hear people criticize specific countries for their conquest decades and centuries ago. Yes, atrocities have happened, unfortunately it is the history of the world.

It seems almost everyone stands on blood-soaked ground. You cannot change what your forefathers did to my forefathers and vice-versa. Whether they are in Heaven or Hell, from their present viewpoint, surely, they would want us to live in peace.

One would be hard pressed to find a place that is presently occupied solely by the original inhabitants. Most every region of the world has been either conquered, invaded, settled, or intermingled by another people group, tribe, or country. Those in the past have died and are not coming back to right their wrongs. We should seek to live in peace with each other regardless of our histories.

We should be governed by love and seek peace, but the blood thirsty haters and greedy power grabbers will never settle for enough to let us live in peace and quiet. It is sad to say, but war will be our lot until the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, comes back to reign over the earth for a millennium.

Hate is an awful thing. It clouds one’s eyes and fogs the brain with the rashness of fierce emotions desiring only blood. Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said, “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” Hamas is more than desiring another inch of ground, they will only be satisfied with the very destruction of Israel.

For millenniums, God’s chosen people, Israel, have been the target of extreme visceral hatred by various groups seeking their destruction. All have failed, from the Babylonians to the Hitlers of the world, and now to the various Islamic terrorist groups and haters of the world. I have read the BOOK (Bible) and none will be successful.

I am a Gentile by birth, a wild olive tree, but I have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree of Israel by the death and resurrection of (Yeshua), Jesus Christ, the Messiah. (See Romans 11:16-24)

As the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 3:7-9 (NKJV), “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. / And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ / So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

The smoke of war shall rise, and the sound of war will roar, but one day the eastern sky will explode with the Coming of the Son of God. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen” (Rev. 1:7 NKJV). The first time He came to die, but the second time He shall reign.

I STAND WITH ISRAEL!!! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

Matthew 24:3-14 NKJV
(3)  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"
(4)  And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you.
(5)  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
(6)  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
(7)  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
(8)  All these are the beginning of sorrows.
(9)  "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.
(10)  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
(11)  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
(12)  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
(13)  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
(14)  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.