As all of our regular students know, I lay great emphasis on
Bible prophecies and their fulfillment. Both Old and New Testaments
repeatedly say this is proof of the genuineness and inspiration
of the Scriptures, as well as vital for our guidance. Many of
these prophecies deal with war. Not only of the wars of the wicked
against us, but also with our duty to have our part in Yahweh's wars
against the wicked. There is no pacifism in the Bible. Only
under Yahshua's personal government of the world, can there ever be
peace. I want to delve into the matter of our duties in the
meantime, in this imperfect world.
Yahweh knew that we
must defend ourselves against the wicked. He promised His help
at these times of conflict. Deuteronomy 20:3-4 tells us, "Hear, O
Israel: ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies.
Let not you hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither
be ye terrified because of them: for Yahweh your God is He that
goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies to save
you." In Deuteronomy 2:25 Yahweh said, "This day will I begin to
put dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are
under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall
tremble because of thee." Repeatedly Yahweh tells us, "Ye shall
not fear them: for Yahweh your God, He shall fight for
you."
To get the greatest protection, we must obey
Yahweh. In Leviticus 26:3,6-8 He says, "If ye walk in My
statutes, and keep My commandments and do them; I will give peace in
the land, and ye shall lie down and none shall make you afraid: and
I will rid evil beasts out of the land; neither shall the sword go
through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they
shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase
an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight:
and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword."
Let
there be no doubt about this, Yahweh is a God of peace to those
who love and obey Him. However, to the wicked who try to overthrow
all His rule in this world, He is a man of war, as Exodus 15:3
states. Psalm 24:8 reminds us, "Who is this King of glory? Yahweh
strong and mighty, Yahweh mighty in battle." In Psalm 18:32,34,&
39 David says, "It is Yahweh that girdeth me with strength, and
maketh my way perfect. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a
bow of steel is broken by my arms. For Thou hast girded me with
strength unto the battle: Thou hast subdued under me those that rose
up against me." II Samuel 1:18 records David required that the men
of Judah be taught to use the bow.
There was more to this
than just the mere defense of ourselves against direct attack. It
is our job to be Yahweh's policemen in this world, and we must be
ready, willing and able to do this. In Jeremiah 51:20 Yahweh
gives us our orders saying, "Thou art My battle axe and weapons
of war: for with thee will I destroy kingdoms."
Yahweh
will use His great power to see that we are victorious. However, we
can't hide under the bed at home, while His work is done. We must do
our part of it, with absolute confidence in His protection. In
Isaiah 54:15,17 Yahweh says, "Behold, they shall surely gather
together, but not by Me: whosoever shall gather against thee shall
fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment
thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of
Yahweh, and their righteousness is of Me, saith
Yahweh."
Remember, keeping the world in order is doing
Yahweh's work so we must do it, for He has said we shall. If we
decide that we are so much more righteous than Yahweh, that we can
make our own rules and say surrender to evil is better than
enforcing the right, then we should remember the terrible warning in
Jeremiah 48:10. "Cursed be he that doeth the work of Yahweh
negligently, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from
blood."
To be the instrument in Yahweh's hand, by
which He brings righteousness and justice into an unwilling world is
an honor, and that is what Yahweh calls it. Psalm 149:5-9 states
it clearly. "Let the saints by joyful in glory: let them sing
aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of Yahweh be in their
mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand: to execute vengeance
upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people: to bind the kings
with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron: to execute upon
them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Praise ye
Yahweh!"
At this point, I can see some of you protesting
that this is from the Old Testament. You think Yahweh was all wrong,
and all of this was done away with by the New Testament. I have a
surprise for you, Yahweh was right, He didn't have to change His
mind or be taught higher ethics by men.
Let's see what
the New Testament has to say. In Matthew 10:34 Yahshua says,
"Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I come not to send
peace, but a sword." In Luke 22:36 Yahshua told His
disciples, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy
one." Yahshua didn't have to change His mind either. In
Revelation 19:11 we read this about Him. "And I saw heaven opened,
and behold, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make
war."
Peace never comes by cooperation with Satan, or
with Satan's children and followers. You can't co-exist with
a cancer, either you must cut it out completely, or it will kill
you, both cannot survive. Therefore the Prince of peace must be
in complete control over a world from which evil has been driven
out. Only then can the words of Micah 4:1-3 be fulfilled. "But in
the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house
of Yahweh shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And
many nations shall come, and say, Come and let us go up to the
mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he
will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the
law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar
off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
Note this
doesn't come through the might of Russia and the wisdom of Tito, or
in that parliament of evil the United Nations. It is done
only by the might of Yahweh. Therefore we read how this will be
done in Isaiah 66:15-16. "For behold, Yahweh will come with fire,
and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with
fury and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His
sword will Yahweh plead with all flesh: and the slain of Yahweh
shall be many."
Whether we like it or not, Yahweh has said
to us, "Thou art My battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee
will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy
kingdoms." Those who serve Yahweh willingly receive the
reward. But willing or not, we must obey Him. If we obey the
laws of Yahweh, and follow confidently where He leads, we may be
sure of His blessings. One of these is, "Five of you will chase an
hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight." I
would rather face Russia and China on this basis, than to have to
face them anyway as a punishment because we have defied Yahweh and
sought co-existence with Satan.
I
started this lesson with the statement that I place great emphasis
on Bible prophecy and fulfillment. What about these prophecies I
have quoted to you? Have they been fulfilled? Have the tribes of
Israel and their later descendants the Scythians, Ostrogoths,
Visigoths, Angli and the Saxons fulfilled these prophecies? In
modern days, these people are known as the Anglo Saxons,
Scandinavian and Germanic nations. Yes indeed, these nations have
fulfilled these prophecies in every detail. It is strange that
the clergy, who claim to teach the word of Yahweh, have not honored
Him with proof that He always keeps His word.
Remember,
we have traced the people of Israel, after their deportation by the
Assyrians, into the lands around the Caspian Sea. There they became
known to the Greeks as Skuths, to the Romans as Scythians, and to
the Persians as Sakka. In the course of time the name Sakka became
Sacasones, then Saxons. Other tribes became known as the Angli, yet
others as the Goths, who divided into the Ostrogoths, or the East
Goths, and the Visigoths, or West Goths. Now let us see what these
Israelite tribes did.
A generation sufficed for them to fully
throw off the Assyrian yoke and they became a numerous and powerful
people. Their constant warfare of the Scythians against the
Assyrians was not enough to fully conquer Assyria, but it did
bleed the Assyrians white, as the saying is. Finally the Scythians
became allies of the Medes, their neighbors to the east. The allied
Median and Scythian armies captured Ninevah in 606 B.C., and the
Assyrian empire disappeared from ancient history.
About 550
B.C., Cyrus the Great of Persia, conquered Media and absorbed Media
into the greater Persian Empire. By this time the Babylonian
captivity of Judah had been in effect for a whole century. Remember
Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great image, which the prophet Daniel
interpreted for him? The image's head of gold was Nebuchadnezzar's
own Babylonian empire, the first of the four great heathen empires,
which dominated world history. The image's breast and arms of silver
represented the Medo-Persian Empire. The belly and thighs of brass
were the Greco-Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great. This empire
extended from Greece through all western Asia, even into northern
India. The legs of iron were the Roman Empire.
Scythians were
allies of the great Medo-Persian army of Cyrus, which conquered the
Babylonian empire and released a few thousand of the captives of
Judah and Benjamin, so they could return to Palestine. What
happened to the many other people of Judah and Benjamin, who did not
return to Palestine?
History records that the
Scythians swooped down on the region around Babylon and took most of
the people of Judah and Benjamin back with them, leaving the few who
went back to Palestine. The fall of Babylon was not solely the
work of the Israelite Scythians. The prophesied rise of the
Medo-Persian Empire at this time required that the glory should go
to it. Yet, Scythian Israel did play some part in it, though not a
large one.
However, Cyrus was ambitious, greedy and
ungrateful for the help his Scythian allies had given him. Nine
years after the fall of Babylon, Cyrus led a great army to attack
the Scythians, and was killed in battle. Without Cyrus to lead them,
the army was defeated and so retreated.
The successor to
Cyrus was Darius I. He raised a far greater army and led them north
against the Scythians. These armies were too great for the Scythians
to fight. So, being a nomadic people, the Scythian army retreated
northward before Cyrus. They constantly kept tantalizingly just out
of reach, while the weary Persians got farther and farther away from
their base of supply at home.
The pursuit continued deep into
the Caucasus Mountains. The army of Scythian Israel crossed
through the great pass, now occupied by the Georgian Military Road.
This pass, from that time down to our own times, has borne the
name, The Pass of Israel. At the tremendous chasm of the Dariel
Gorge, which even a handful of Scythians could have defended, Darius
and his army turned back. He left his name to this place, even to
this day.
Alexander the Great set up his huge empire in the
11 years between 334 B.C. and 323 B.C.; He conquered and absorbed
the Persian Empire in the process. Thus the belly and thighs of
brass succeeded the breast and arms of silver. No enemy overthrew
Alexander's empire; it just fell apart into four quarters at his
death, as Daniel had prophesied.
However, Bactria, largely
modern Afghanistan and eastern Persia, remained part of the Seleucid
quarter of the old Alexandrian empire. Alexander had penetrated
India as far as the Punjab. Again we find Scythian Israel performing
its job as Yahweh's battle-axe. In 128 B.C., the Scythians overran
northern Persia, defeated several Persian armies, and collected
tribute from several successive Persian kings.
Next,
beginning about 126 B.C., the Scythians invaded Bactria, overthrew
the Seleucid rulers and went on through Afghanistan and the Khyber
Pass into India. They set up a strong kingdom in the Punjab and
part of Rajputana, which remained powerful until the 5th century
A.D. However, the fate of all invaders of India met them, they
finally mongrelized their blood with that of the dark local races
and their greatness ended. However the Jats, who are about half
the population of the Punjab, and some of the Rajput tribes, still
show traces of the Scythian blood. The rest of Alexander's
empire still had its part to play in history. However, this eastern
quarter of it was destroyed by Scythian Israel.
Nearly all the people of migrating Israel
were by now deep into Europe. Many of them were already in Germany
and around the shores of the Baltic Sea. In the year 410 A.D., the
Visigoths completed their conquest of Italy by the capture of the
city of Rome. However, they held Italy only a few years, and then
they moved out into France and northern Spain, where some of them
settled permanently.
However, the other half of the powerful
nation of the Goths, and the Ostrogoths, were yet to play their part
against Rome. In 493 A.D., the Ostrogoths conquered all of Italy,
including Rome itself, and set up an Ostrogothic kingdom there.
While this lasted as an independent kingdom only until 552 A.D., it
still marked the end of the glory that was Rome. Yahweh's
battle-axe and weapons of war had destroyed the last of the
Babylonian succession of empires.
From that time on, we
are in the period of European history. We know how these people
developed into the greatest nations, which made modern history they
are indeed modern history. The Bible gives scant attention to the
old lands in western Asia, other than the prophecies concerning
Yahshua, and their fulfillment. The reason for this lack of
attention to the old lands is that Yahweh's people Israel, no longer
lived there. The Arabian empire receives doubtful mention in an
obscure passage in the book of Revelation. There is clear mention in
only one other verse. The Turkish Empire is ignored, for it had no
effect upon Israel.
The Israel nations in Europe were
Yahweh's battle-axe and weapons of war they expanded in all
directions. They conquered and ruled India; they shattered and
destroyed the Turkish Empire when the times of the nations expired
in 1917. Russia was forced back into Asia in the Crimea war. China
was conquered and compelled to open its ports to trade freely
with the world. An Israel nation smashed the great Japanese
empire.
True, Christian Israel's wars have been costly.
Because we have not obeyed Yahweh, we have won our victories at a
fearful price. By allowing the Jews to live among us to become
wealthy and powerful, we have allowed them to set the nations of
Christian Israel fighting among themselves. Nevertheless,
Yahweh's
prophecies are unconditional; history has proven this to
be true.