The Iraq War of 2003: Where does it fit into Bible Prophecy?

Larry Kirkpatrick ++ Mentone Seventh-day Adventist church ++ 22 March 2003

A more accurate title for this message might have been, "The Coalition versus Iraq War of 2003: Does it fit into Bible Prophecy?" because the USA is not in this alone, and because there is no guarantee that this war automatically fits into Bible prophecy. Nevertheless, the fact remains that only the USA and its closest allies have the resolve necessary to conduct such a war, and that as I shall momentarily share with you, I do believe that there is a role this war is playing in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Qualifiers

But before we proceed, qualifiers.

We have considerable ground to cover in a tiny space of time. Because some of us here today no doubt suffer from a poor memory or even have never been shown the basic contour of end-time prophetic events, we are going to pass over some points very quickly. The kind of clear evidences I would normally share with you demonstrating certain ideas to be firmly founded upon Scripture will not be given in any depth. Instead, I will refer you to other places where I have published materials giving that material more fully.

Another qualifier. Because Bible prophecy is not always as kind to the United States of America as we might prefer it to be, I want to here make a brief statement about the current war. I am a Christian. I am an American citizen. I think it is safe to say that on both counts, we automatically prefer peace to war. Our Lord Jesus whom we profess to worship is called in Scripture the prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). But He also says He came not to bring peace, but a sword (Luke 12:51). It is the very nature of ultimate good to challenge ultimate evil. They cannot harmonize.

Christianity is not a ship for fools; it is not a haven for simpletons. The kind of 60-second answers we might prefer to use in facing the world are more disposable than useful. Before you or I connect ourselves to a knee-jerk "I oppose the war" philosophy, let's be sober. We should not try to stand before the bulldozer of the facts. Those facts include this: it was no mere debate that broke out in heaven millennia ago between God and Satan; "there was war in heaven" (Revelation 12:7). There was fighting of some sort.

All through the Bible is published God's running account of the conflict between good and evil. There is a ribbon of scarlet woven through these Holy Scriptures, because the blood of Christ, the very life of God must be sacrificed in order to release the captive race from Satan's clutches. Jesus didn't flinch. He had extraordinary resolve. His death for you and me on the cross was no mere made-for-TV drama selling laundry detergent between scenes. It was the central event in the plan of salvation. It was very costly indeed.

Even a superficial reading of the Old Testament reveals that there were occasions where God commanded His people to fight wars. There are some extraordinary things commanded in some places back there in those pages. And lets not forget that our beloved New Testament closes with the falling of fire and the ultimate extinction of sin and sinners by God. Before we all think of ourselves in simplistic pacifist terms, let's realize that we ourselves are soldiers in a war that is still heading towards the finish line. We are combatants. only our war is spiritual. A knee-jerk kind of pacifism is more simplistic than realistic.

So here then let me offer my last qualifier. It is not my purpose today to argue that the Iraq war is just or not. But I will offer this as food for thought. The following is an excerpt from a young lady living in Britain, Rania Kashi, a student at Cambridge University and an Iraqi exile. She is addressing anti-war protestors. This was written before the war began.

• Saddam has murdered more than a million Iraqis over the past thirty years; are you willing to allow him to kill another million?
• Out of a population of 20 million, 4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their country during Saddam's reign. Are you willing to ignore the real and present danger that caused so many people to leave their homes and families?
• Saddam rules Iraq using fear; he regularly imprisons, executes and tortures large numbers of people for no reason whatsoever. This may be hard to believe, and you may not even appreciate the extent of such barbaric acts, but believe me you will be hard-pressed to find a single family in Iraq which has not had a son/father/brother killed, imprisoned, tortured and/or "disappeared" due to Saddam's regime. What then has been stopping you from taking to the streets to protest against such blatant crimes against humanity in the past?
• Saddam gassed thousands of political prisoners in one of his campaigns to "cleanse" prisons; why are you not protesting against this barbaric act?
• This is an example of the dictator's policy you are trying to save. Saddam has made a law excusing any man who rapes a female relative and then murders her in the name of adultery. Do you still want to march to keep him in power?
• Throughout my life, my father and many other Iraqis have attended constant meetings, protests and exhibitions that call for the end of Saddam's reign. I remember when I was around 8 years old, I went along with him to a demonstration at the French embassy, protesting against the French sale of weapons to Saddam. I have attended the permanent rally against Saddam that has been held every Saturday in Trafalgar Square for the past five years. The Iraqi people have been protesting for years against the war: the war that Saddam has waged against them. Where have you been?
• Why is it now -- at the very time that the Iraqi people are being given real hope, however slight and however precarious, that they can live in an Iraq that is free of the horrors partly described in this email -- that you deem it appropriate to voice your disillusions with America's policy in Iraq?

Poignant thoughts. Someone walking in different moccasins than yours or mine maybe? Another perspective. Does our nation sit by while these kinds of behaviors go unrelieved? Again, all this is not to argue for or against the war. Just to show there is another perspective you might not have had much opportunity to hear from yet in our media -- that of the Iraqis themselves. (You can read Rania's entire letter at http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article.jsp?id=2&debateId=88&articleId=983#.) I would simply offer that there is an argument to be made that all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing. Or else engage in hide and seek inspections with a regime that is a known quantity.

Here then let me offer this succinct thought: What the coalition is doing for Iraq may have some good in it along with the sorrow. And I will leave it at that. Now, to the center of our real topic. . .

Some Bible Prophecy Basics

Let's refresh some points of Bible understanding before we tackle our main questions. First, is Bible prophecy all about middle eastern oil and political intrigues? No. Jesus told us that the Scriptures from front to back are focused on Him. He is the center of prophecy. History is His story. If you want to look up a helpful passage on this later, try for Luke 24 and notice especially verses such as 25-27. Add to that even the most superficial reading of the book of Revelation and unless you are utterly blind you will see the Jesus stands at the center of all these things, even of apocalyptic prophecy.

Well then, what about all the talk of a literal Armageddon battle in the middle east? Without taking up all the details, which would mean a seminar on prophecy, we can state the following. Armageddon is mostly if not entirely a spiritual battle. In some ways it is the entirety of the battle between good and evil that began over 6000 years ago. In another sense, it represents the final climax of the spiritual battle for all of our souls. Interpreting the prophecies literally is not the key we need. These prophecies are highly symbolic for a reason, and they need to be interpreted in harmony with their linkages to other passages in the Bible. What we want is not necessarily a literal interpretation, but the meaning the Bible writer wanted us to derive from the Scriptures, what the writer meant. Sometiems that will be more literal and other times not. When I say to you, Go jump in the lake, I do not mean go and literally jump into the lake. It is a figurative way of saying "I sharply disagree with you."

What about the establishment of the modern nation of Israel in 1948? Isn't that a fulfillment of prophecy? Not at all. The Bible speaks of God's people obeying Him and then being established in their land. The modern state of Israel is very largely a secular and ethnic state.

In fact, most of contemporary Christianity's views concerning Bible prophecy are founded upon the Roman catholic theological deceptions of either pretorism or futurism. This is not a serious question. Scholarship around all the world's table recognizes the connection. (You can read about all this in my presentation The Final Lie, http://www.collisionwithprophecy.org/journey/cwp12.html.)

A Changing World

It so happens that you and I live on a hinge-time in history, and that the hinge is moving to a new position. That's why the ride is has become so tumultuous just now. With the triumph of the policy of President Reagan and the Pope and its toppling of the then USSR, a bi-polar world was changed. Everything began inevitably to ooze toward a new geopolitical shape. A decade and a half later it is no surprise that the pieces are moving into new positions with increasing vigor. Our world is being changed. But then again, we've been warned. The Bible's testimony about closing developments long has told us that the final movements will be rapid ones.

Whether we agree with their reasoning in Washington, surely we can understand their mathematics. In a world with weapons of mass destruction (WMD)s running loose, making every tin-pot dictator who has them a global threat, we can understand something of the danger that is posed. WMDs are so lethal, capable of killing so many at once, of achieving a holocaust in a half-second, that pre-emptive action is the only logical course. Few nations, if any, besides the United States, are capable of actively pursuing a pre-emptive military course. The United States' leaders recognize that so long as the USA does nothing to protect its people -- it really is only a matter of time before begins loosing cities to suicidal nuclear strikes or other WMD weapons.

All this as we realize that with the collapse of communism Europeans feel safer, and with the 9-11 attack on the USA, America feels less safe. And all of this is combined with a massive shift in information technology that is enabling accelerated monitoring of its own citizens by their own government. The trade of privacy for safety has very largely taken place already. We're OK as long as the nation remains benevolent towards our religious views. But we know this will not last. The stage is being set very rapidly these days.

Enter Stage Left -- The Papacy

Revelation 13:1-10 identifies a power that holds sway in the end-time geopolitics of our planet. She has been carefully identified by many students of prophecy and history, over and over. I've dealt with this task in Big Words. Little Horn, http://www.collisionwithprophecy.org/journey/cwp8.html. We don't have time today to go through it all. Suffice it to say, history reveals plainly that this power can only be the Roman Catholic Church. There are no other serious candidates, not one. The Roman Catholic Church is the Beast of Revelation 13:1-10 and the "little horn" of Daniel seven.

Please be careful; we do not say this to condemn even one serious Catholic person who loves God and has been living up to all that they know. But along with the positive things there, there are very troubling things there. Even the Pope recently has apologized for various nefarious deeds accomplished through this religio-political power down through the ages.

I'm going to remind you of a few facts about the Papacy found in a book I think most of you present here are familiar with: Ellen G. White's Great Controversy. Consider these quotations, especially in the light of what I will share just following.

The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. (Great Controversy, pp. 565-566).

The Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. (Great Controversy, p. 571).

History testifies of her [the Roman Catholic Church's] artful and persistent efforts to insinuate herself into the affairs of nations" (Great Controversy, p. 581).

The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent. 'Faith ought not to be kept with heretics, nor persons suspected of heresy' (Lenfant, volume 1, page 516), she declares. Shall this power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints, be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ? (Great Controversy, p. 571).

We have, in recent years watched as these very words have been fulfilled before our eyes and ears -- although we may not have always noticed them as we should have. Let's fast forward now to the last coupekl of years and see what has been going on.

In 1999 when the Pope visited Romania he became the first pope to visit an eastern Orthodox land since the great schism of AD 1054. In 2000 the Pope journeyed to the nation of Israel where he apologized to the Jews for years of Christianity's alleged record of anti-semitism. In 2001 he participated in the first religious service of a Pope with Muslims in a mosque where he and the Islamic worship leader prayed together. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1216852.stm, accessed March 21, 2003 at 9:15PM PST.)

The Vatican has been pursuing a steady strategy for many years. Do you know what they were saying way back in 1964? Listen to this:

The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place among whom are the Muslims: these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day." (Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 16, November 21, 1964).

On March 5, 2003 Cardinal Pio Laghi, after his audience with President George W. Bush on March 5, 2003 made the following statements:

The Holy See is urging those in positions of civil authority to take fully into account all aspects of this crisis. In that regard, the Holy See's position has been two-fold. First, the Iraqi government is obliged to fulfill completely and fully its international obligations regarding human rights and disarmament under the UN resolutions with respect for international norms. Second, these obligations and their fulfillment must continue to be pursued within the framework of the United Nations.

The Holy See maintains that there are still peaceful avenues within the context of the vast patrimony of international law and institutions which exist for that purpose. A decision regarding the use of military force can only be taken within the framework of the United Nations, but always taking into account the grave consequences of such an armed conflict: the suffering of the people of Iraq and those involved in the military operation, a further instability in the region and a new gulf between Islam and Christianity.

And in a newspaper article yesterday here's what it said: "The pope has become one of the strongest antiwar voices over the past several weeks, relentlessly campaigning for peace as tensions flared across the globe." The Pope said, "As a man of peace, we pray to St. Joseph for those threatened by war and we invoke the precious gift of harmony upon the whole human family," John Paul told the crowd who had gathered to honor St. Joseph." (http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/03/20/sprj.irq.pope.reax/, accessed March 21, 2003 at 9:22PM PST.)

Another source says "The latest developments will be a setback for Pope John Paul, who has led a vigorous diplomatic campaign against the threatened U.S.-led attack on Iraq, emerging as one of the world's most powerful anti-war voices." (Article: "Vatican: US, Backers Responsible Before God on Iraq," http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44591-2003Mar18.html, accessed 21 March 2003 at 7:16PM PST).

But I must disagree. Far from being a setback, the maneuvering by the Papacy is cagey. Consider these points as you weigh what is in it for the Papacy:

1. It is obvious from the get-go that unless America chooses to change direction, no one is going to stop the war from occurring. Therefore the future may be read readily by the Vatican. Surely by March 5 they already anticipated with clarity that the USA was going to go to war with Iraq and that this development was unstoppable.
2. Also, by March 5 it was entirely clear what the public sentiments in Europe and even the world concerning the war were. The majority of the vocal public was more or less deeply opposed to the action. Again, this was a given fact, known by the Papacy.
3. The Papacy has been for some time active in making initiatives toward the Muslim world. The Pope entertains hopes of uniting under one shadow (his own) the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
4. These factors all play in one direction. Realizing that the war is a foregone conclusion, and that public opinion is sharply opposed to it, the Vatican can, in the old world, position itself as a voice of reason, a "moral" voice, a mediator of nations, a power for peace, a uniquely authoritative moral voice for the globe.

The papacy does not need direct control in America; she will be content to in our country wield her power through the medium of an eviscerated Protestantism, while she regains her former powerful stature in the remainder of the world.

Back-Scratching Beasts

Let's look at Revelation 13:11-12: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed."

The beast with two horns who looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon, is the United States of America (for a treatment making this identification, examine my presentation America in Prophecy, http://www.collisionwithprophecy.org/journey/cwp15.html). But our intention here is to notice what the first beast does. Remember, the lamb-like beast is the USA and the first beast is the Roman Catholic Church.

Verse 12 begins, " And he [the lamb-like beast] exerciseth all the power of the first beast [the Roman Catholic Church] before him." What were the powers exercised by the first beast? Revelation 13:1-10 tells the story. Persecution of those who dissented from her doctrines was the prominent feature of her most dominant years. Rest assured, the lamb-like beast shall exercise, that is, make full use of "all the power" of the first beast. She will persecute and do so with a vengeance and finesse we can only now imagine.

But our text continues. The lamb-like beast, following in the behavioral tracks of the first beast "causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." There comes a time when the papacy has completely recovered from the deadly wound of 1798. Looking out at the power she increasingly wields in our world I would say that wound is coming along rather well. Her power is rapidly returning. She is well on the mend! But let's stick with our point. Namely, in our neck of the global woods, the USA under the influence of a religious power will wield tremendous power and enforce the worship of the first beast. We will be compelled to, unless we stand firmly against it, worship the first beast. The lamblike beast scratches the back of the first beast. They become closest friends. What a dark day is just ahead!

Dominance in the New World and the Old

Let's clarify this final scenario, again turning to the Great Controversy. Watch closely. Pay attention to the phrases old and new:

What nation of the New World was in 1798 rising into power, giving promise of strength and greatness, and attracting the attention of the world? The application of the symbol admits of no question. One nation, and only one, meets the specifications of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to the United States of America. (Great Controversy, p. 440).

They [Protestants] are opening the door for the papacy to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. (Great Controversy, p. 573).

In both the Old and the New World, the papacy will receive homage in the honor paid to the Sunday institution, that rests solely upon the authority of the Roman Church. (Great Controversy, p. 578).

Romanism in the Old World and apostate Protestantism in the New will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts. (Great Controversy, p. 615).

So what is the final scenario? The USA becomes preeminent militarily but at last her principles are co-opted, and she aids an ascendant Papacy in old world. Friends, the table is being set! The chess pieces are moving toward endgame. And now we must turn our attention more closely to following Jesus than we have. He will get us through. So what are we saying? What is the answer to the question: The Iraq War of 2003: Where does it fit into Bible Prophecy?

Conclusion

What we are seeing, not yesterday and not tomorrow but today, in real-time, may be events which could contribute to projecting the papacy, in as soon as the near-term time-frame, into a position of dominant influence in the old world. The pieces of the end-time scenario Seventh-day Adventists have been telling the world about for a century and a half are, it appears, coming more definitely into place.

If you are listening closely, you are hearing my qualifiers "could be," "it appears," etcetera. It would be irresponsible to stand here and proclaim that which I cannot be sure of. Yes, we know these events or some similar to them are coming. But only time will tell "if these are those."

In the meantime, we know the topic that's on everyone's tongue. Possibly, what we have shared today will aide you in any discussion of these things with persons curious but clueless because they have not availed themselves of the lamp of God's Word. Let us not stray far from the fact that our God prefers to protect His people from needless sorrows and sufferings, and Jesus wore at last the crown of thorns upon His brow, symbol of the fact that He ultimately removes the very curse of sin itself from this garden planet.

There is something beautiful to point our friends toward. Jesus shall end these sorrows and bring a better day. Let us not forget that as we cooperate with Him we ourselves function as soldiers in the great controversy war between Christ and Satan, and may speed the day when all tears are wiped away and the earth is made anew again. Let us be diligent in our function as ambassadors of the prince of peace. He has hope for every heart that is willing to know Jesus. As you have opportunity these days, tell someone about that. It is a good time to become interested in the God who gave His life to save, to end all wars, and bring peace to our fallen race.

Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick is an ordained minister of the gospel. Since 1994 he has served in the American Southwest as pastor to several churches. He received his BA in Religion from Southern Adventist University in 1994 and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University in 1999 with a specialization in Adventist Studies. While in Michigan he was employed by the General Conference at the White Estate Berrien Springs branch office. More important than his scholastic preparation has been his immersion in the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy materials. He is author of the 2003 book Real Grace for Real People. Presently he serves as Pastor of the Mentone Church of Seventh-day Adventists, located near Loma Linda, California. Larry is married to Pamela. The couple presently live in Highland, California along with their two children, Etienne and Melinda.