SIGNS OF THE SECOND COMING CONCERNING WAR

(Taken from The Old Testament Student Manual, beginning on page 292 – only a small part is included here).

“At the very moment of the Second Coming of our Lord, all nations shall be gathered against Jerusalem to battle. The war of Armageddon, covering the entire area from Jerusalem to Megiddo (about 60 miles) and perhaps more, will be in progress. Then Christ will come as a thief, meaning unexpectedly. .. It is the battle described by Ezekiel as the war with Gog of the land of Magog. Gog is a symbolic name for the leader or leaders of this great evil power that will arise in the last days…an army of 200 million.

Obviously, this is an event of great importance to the world and the Lord has given a wealth of detail so that those who will listen can be prepared and comforted as the greatest war in the history of the world begins to unfold…Satan and Gog will be highly disciplined in warfare and virtually invincible. It will be partly through the aid of false religionists working miracles that so many people join in this unholy alliance…

On the Lord’s side will be two important participants in these great events. Bruce R. McConkie said, ‘No doubt they will be members of the Council of the Twelve or of the First Presidency of the Church…They shall have power like Elijah who called down fire from heaven.’ Isaiah called these prophets ‘two sons’ and said they were the only hope of deliverance for Israel because they would be ‘full of the fury of the Lord.’

The Apostle John showed that eventually the two prophets will be captured and killed by the opposing army and their bodies will be left in the streets of Jerusalem for three days and a half…During that time the army will ravage the city of Jerusalem and the remaining population of Israel…


In what will be one of the blackest moments of Israel’s history, just as it appears that they are about to be annihilated, the Lord’s fury will be unleashed upon the kingdoms of the world…the two prophets will be resurrected in the sight of the people and they will ascend up to heaven in a cloud with their enemies beholding them.

An earthquake will strike the earth, affecting the whole world. Earth’s land masses shall unite. Islands and continents shall become one land and the great deep shall return to its place in the north and the earth shall be like it was in the days before it was divided. The area around Jerusalem, which is now very hilly and steep, will be smoothed out and become like a plain. The Mount of Olives will be split in two, providing an avenue of escape for the house of Israel.
The armies of Gog will turn upon each other, perhaps in the panic and confusion of the great earthquake.

A great rain of fire and hail will shower down upon Gog with hailstones that will weigh a talent or about 75 pounds each. A plague will strike the army causing terrible disease and calamity. The result will be that only about one-sixth of the invading army will survive the Lord’s judgments and their power to make war will be destroyed. In Jerusalem itself, 7000 will be slain and one-tenth of the city destroyed.

So great will be the devastation that for seven years Israel will be able to live off the spoils of war left behind. It will take seven months to bury the dead. Armageddon signals the end of the world which is defined as the destruction of the wicked, but it prepares the way for the ushering in of the millennial reign of Christ and the era of peace that will endure for a thousand years.

Mankind will enter a remarkable period of righteousness, health, education, prosperity and security. The millennial era could not begin without the widespread destruction of the wicked. Therefore, while the battle of Armageddon is in and of itself a thing horrible to contemplate, it is necessary because of the wickedness of the world and ultimately it will play an important part in the Lord’s plan for the redemption of the earth.”