We’re not currently in a World War, but we can say accurately that our world is at war. Just yesterday, while reading the newspaper, all the global hotspots and flash points that exist today struck me—article after article about all the places where there are ongoing wars, conflicts, and rumors of wars. It’s not just in the newspapers; you see it online and on all the cable news channels 24/7.
Let’s examine one single news cycle.
One article I read stated that just within the continent of Africa, there are currently 35 ongoing armed conflicts.
We see all across the news the activity of Iran and its proxies/surrogates. Iran has formed what is called the “Axis of Resistance,” which perpetrates waves of attacks and reprisals. There have been 130 attacks by this “Axis of Resistance” so far against US bases in Syria and Iraq since mid-October.
This week, within a short 24-hour timespan, Iran launched missile and drone attacks against three of its neighboring nations—Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan.
Syria was targeted because ISIS, which is now active again, is responsible for bombs detonated at the commemoration ceremony of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani’s death. The terrorists blew themselves up, killing over 100 people. Iran is firing into Iraq because they believe that there is an intelligence headquarters by the Israeli Mossad in the northern portion of the country. Pakistan was fired upon due to Tehran’s belief that anti-Iranian terrorist groups were holed up in the country.
A headline in The New York Times read, “Iranian Strikes in Iraq and Pakistan Inflame Regional Tensions.”
The United States announced on Tuesday that the Navy commandeered Iranian missiles on their way to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. A large billboard on the side of a building in Tehran depicts Iranian missiles with writing in both Hebrew and Persian, reading “Prepare your coffins.”
All of this is happening as Iran is on the cusp of the nuclear threshold. Iran Watch published a report in late December stating that the country’s nuclear program “has reached the point at which, within three weeks, Iran might be able to enrich enough uranium for five fission weapons.”
The newspaper I read yesterday also covered the Israel-Gaza War, the Houthis attacks on the Red Sea, and the US, the UK, and Australia striking targets in Yemen. You can see all the nations that are involved, which have already been mentioned: Israel, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
We also have China’s threat to Taiwan. Taiwan held its elections on January 13th. They elected Lai Ching-te, who is very anti-China and against any kind of reunification. Then, on Wednesday, eighteen Air Force planes from China were operating in and around Taiwan.
Jesus said there will be “wars and rumors of wars”—constant threats of war (Matthew 24:6).
Another place is North Korea. The Wall Street Journal has an article that says, “Kim Jong Un Has a New Enemy No. 1—and It Isn’t the U.S.”
“North Korea says it will rewrite its constitution casting South Korea as a hostile nation, breaking its policy of seeking peaceful reunification,” the WSJ reported.
The leader of North Korea has canceled any hope of reunification and reconciliation with South Korea. The Korean peninsula right now is more dangerous than at any time since 1950—the Korean War.
France 24 reported, “N. Korea formally abolishes govt agencies working for cooperation with South.” NewsNation has a headline that says, “North Korea could be preparing for war, experts warn.”
Kim Jong Un on Monday vowed to remove a massive monument to the possible reunification of the Korean Peninsula. This great nine-story tall monument called the “Monument to the Three Charters” was finished in 2001 by his father and grandfather, who had some idea of reunification eventually with the South.
The North Korean leader declared that the country should completely remove this “eyesore” and take other measures to eliminate concepts of reunification, reconciliation, and fellow countrymen from the national history of the republic. South Korea, he insisted, is North Korea’s number one enemy.
Additionally, North Korea has become very active, according to an article by CNN, firing hundreds of artillery rounds into waters near a disputed border between North and South Korea and testing what it said was a “ballistic missile topped with a hypersonic glide vehicle.”
One of Russia’s main envoys is now in North Korea, trying to get weapons from the country to help them prosecute their war against Ukraine. The Russia-Ukraine war has now entered its third calendar year. Day 700 of that war is just a few days away.
Newsweek on Tuesday published an article with the headline, “Putin Ally Says World War III Will ‘Definitely’ Begin Soon in Middle East.” Russians are joining the military at the rate of 30,000 a month because they can get paid more there than in any other job in their current economy.
The New York Post reported this week, “Germany Is Preparing For Russia To Start World War III, Leaked Plan Reveals.”
“Europe is preparing for Russian President Vladimir Putin to expand his country’s war in Ukraine and attack NATO ally countries next year, leaked [classified military] documents [from the German Ministry of Defense] reveal,” NY Post detailed. “The potential scenario outlines how Russia could start waging war in the Baltics by July using severe cyberattacks while stirring up discontent among Russian nationals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.”
“By September, those clashes, the classified documents show, could be used by Russia as an excuse to unleash ‘Zapad 2024,’ a large-scale military ‘exercise’ that would amass some 50,000 Russian soldiers in the west of the country and Belarus,” they continued. “By December, according to the plot — a worst-case-scenario exercise — Russia could then take advantage of the transition period following the US presidential election and use propaganda, proclaiming fictional ‘border conflicts’ or ‘riots with numerous deaths’ to incite violence.”
“Following a meeting of the UN Security Council in January 2025, Russia could then falsely accuse Western allies of plotting to move against Putin’s regime, which he could use to rally troops to Belarus and the Baltics by March 2025,” the article explained. “The leaked document said that in this scenario, 30,000 German troops would be deployed for defense, while an estimated 70,000 Russian forces would have massed in Belarus.”
“By May 2025, that buildup could prompt NATO to enact ‘measures for credible deterrence’ to prevent further Russian incursion,” the New York Post noted, “which translates to combat between Western troops and Russian forces.”
That would be World War III.
Now, of course, that scenario is speculation at this point, but Germany is actively preparing for that contingency—and there’s a lot of detail there.
Again, we haven’t arrived at World War III yet, but it’s clear that our world today is at war. All that I have detailed was found in one news cycle—just in one day that I came across.
Let me remind you: Jesus said, “ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars,” but He follows it with these words, “See that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
Jesus told us this was coming, but He said don’t be alarmed. He wanted us to know this so that we could be aware, alert, anticipating the rapture, and living our life in light of that day. I hope that’s what you’re doing as we await the coming of Jesus Christ.
