In part of His response to the disciples’ question0 found in Matthew 224:3 “Tell us . . . what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus responded in the sixth verse, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6). Because of Jesus’ words in this passage, whenever there is an explosion of conflict, especially now that there’s war in the vicinity of Israel, many people begin to wonder if the new war is a sign of the end times.
However, it’s important to read the rest of the sixth verse of Matthew, chapter 24. Jesus said, “See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” So the full statement is, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”
This is simply put: yes, there will be wars and even rumors of wars, but that doesn’t signify the end. Friends, there has always been war. The worst and the cause of all these wars is spiritual warfare, which originated in heaven when Lucifer, the covering Cherub, coveted the place of God. “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” – Revelation 12:7-9
This caused the first conflict on earth when Cain killed his brother Abel in Genesis, chapter 4. The Bible also records from the time of Noah that “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” – Genesis 6:11. And so we see that there have always been wars since the fall of man. Abraham fought a war to rescue Lot; the children of Israel fought wars as they got to the promised land; King David fought several wars; and so on and so forth.
When we bring it closer, in the last century, we had World War 1a. It was one of the greatest watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.
The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 5.7 million soldiers, while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. Then came the Second World Warb. Estimates for the total number of casualties in this war vary because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 75 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. Many civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass bombings, disease, and starvation.
These are quite scary truths especially now there are threats of a Third World War. But as believers, even as our heart breaks because of all the suffering, and destruction caused by wars, we are not to be alarmed for Jesus said that these things must take place. We’re told in the Book of Mark 13:7-8. “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.”
We’ve seen Nations rise against nations, family against family. K’Naan in his verse in the record Tribes at War1 featuring Nas and Damian Marley writes, “Mindless violence, well let me try to paint it. Here’s the 5 steps in hopes to explain it. ONE: It’s me and my nation against the world. TWO: Then me and my clan against the nation. THREE: Then me and my fam’ against the clan. FOUR: Then me and my brother, with no hesitation, uh go against the fam’ until they cave in. FIVE: Now who’s left in this deadly equation? That’s right, it’s me against my brother. Then we point a Kalashnikov and kill one another.”
A Kalashnikov is an AK-47. “AK” stands for “Automatic Kalashnikov”, dedicated to the person who created the weapon, Mikhail Kalashnikov. And so we see there’s strife everywhere, even in the family unit. In our own country, we experienced deadly post-election violence in the year 2008, and we’ve also experienced wars between communities. The Al-Shabaab have attacked and killed many Kenyans. There is police brutality and crime in various towns in our country. But let’s not lose heart when we see these things happen or when we are affected by them. May we always find peace in Christ. E.G. White writes that “Christ came to impart that peace, that all who will believe on Him might have a peace that passeth understanding.” – CTr 260.
“Christ came to impart that peace, that all who will believe on Him might have a peace that passeth understanding.”
E.G. White – CTr 260
Things will get worse as the end of time draws ever closer. But that is not to cause us anxiety. Jesus is with us during the earth’s darkest moments. He asks us, through His Holy Spirit, to trust Him no matter what. Will you? Thank you very much for your time. May you be blessed.
