Do you remember life two years ago?

It’s blurry in my memory. If someone said COVID or words like Astra Zeneca, we might have guessed they were speaking another language. Then, a pandemic came on us, and life has not been the same.

We are told that change will come on us:

“The day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5: 2 and 3)

That just happened. Everything seemed normal; I remember making decisions and plans for the next few years. I went to a work site one day, and I remember sheets of plastic hung from the ceilings to keep customers, people off the street, away from the workers at the counters. I had a bad feeling about that, and then someone noticed me. The workers looked at me like I was a strange alien creature, and they explained that I must have missed the email. I checked, and yes, I was instructed to stay home.

If you are wondering, I was working as a driving examiner, and I reported to a registry to take people out for driving exams. Suddenly, that became a bad thing. Change came like a thief in the night.

While we were adjusting to that, about one year in, another world change popped up. In Israel, in the city of Jerusalem, there was a disagreement about something. Most of us hardly noticed news stories about another argument between Israelis Palestinians. Those things usually go away in a few days.

This time, things are different.

READ: Why is violence flaring up in Israel and Gaza?

I predict the fighting will slow down when the Hamas group in Gaza uses up most of its rockets. War is expensive.

We now have another ‘thief in the night’ and the whole world is taking sides. Arguments in the streets in Israel, between neighbors, has turned into something like a war. This is all happening in Israel, as predicted. Jesus is the one who said:

“Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they put out leaves you can see for yourselves and recognize that summer is already near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near.” (Luke 21: 29 to 31)

He was talking about Jerusalem, in Israel, when he said that.

So, is this Armageddon?

Technically no. The valley “hor” of Megiddo is in northern Israel and Armageddon is our way to say Hor-Megiddo. Napoleon visited the place and called it the perfect battlefield. We are told that armies will invade Israel, at the end of our time in history, and God will intervene, before Israel is destroyed. That will be a terrible event.

Right now, we may be watching those first green leaves, but armies are not marching into northern Israel. But it’s easy to see how that could happen.

One hundred years ago, this would all be a conversation in a few small churches. Most people who called themselves Christians did not care about Bible prophecy, and modernism was growing in many groups. That includes the idea that the Bible has no spiritual authority, and is mostly like inspirational poetry. There was also a common idea that the Jews had ceased to exist, and Christians were the new Israel.

In the religion of Islam, there was a strong belief in the “dar es salaam” which means ‘the land of peace’ and this is also the name of a city in Africa. Once a region was liberated by a Muslim majority and governed by Muslims, it could never go back. The leaders of Hamas, among the Palestinians seem to believe that still. A prosperous Jewish nation carved out of the liberated land of peace is impossible, and “peace” must be restored. That place has been under their religion for centuries.

Stories about a nation of Israel, and wars and invasions, was like a science-fiction fairy tale a few generations ago. There were about eleven million Jewish people in the world, and then the Nazis killed about six million of them. Clearly, those future stories could never happen.

Blink … the impossible is happening today. That old book got it right and now we can read Bible stories in news reports. This is impossible, and it should shock us.

It is good for us all to see the big picture. We were told something would happen, and then those stories became impossible, for many reasons. And then the impossible happened; and it keeps happening. A nation that could not exist is in the news, and the stories are happening as promised.

It’s that thief in the night again.

What else did that book get right? What comes after COVID?

As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be. (Matthew 24: 37 to 39)