Bible Time

Persian Gulf War, Prophesies from Revelation

The book of Revelation references the same period with a pointer at the 150 days of Noah. The rule of always finding second references leaves this refence pointing here. It adds details to the headlines and provides a start at understanding the story of the end of the age.

Background

An important interpretive rule for understanding how the Bible was written involves the use of "second references." God always speaks twice because it is no trouble for him and a safeguard for us. When it comes to the Book of Revelation this rule must always be applied.

One passage in Revelation contains a reference to a 5 month unit of time. The second reference rule demands that this be seconded by God himself somewhere else in his word. Without day-for-a-year it is impossible to know just how a second reference might help, given day-for-a-year the only other 5 month long time story of the Bible becomes the second reference to this story.

The five months of Revelation 9:1-12 must be the same five months as that of Noah's time when waters covered the earth.

The following list shows some of the similarities betwen the account in Revelation and the Persian Gulf War, where it applies.

• Star given key to shaft of Abyss.¹

  • Saddam given access to the oil wells in Kuwait. The key word here is "Abyss" which is properly a bottomless pit, as rendered by certain translations automatically for us. Saddam was given the key to the bottomless pits of Kuwait -- the industrial version of a bottom less pit, oil.

• Smoke rose from the Abyss like a gigantic furnace.² Sun and Sky darkened by the smoke.

  • Abyss is a "bottomless pit" of which an oil well is a perfect example. Saddam set them on fire causing the smoke to rise.

    Iraqi soldiers ignited the oil wells of Kuwait beginning about January 22, 1991, in preparation for the Western invasion. The last was put out November 6, 1991.

• Through smoke came locusts with power like scorpions.³

  • The Allies flew helicopter gun ships through the smoke to attack Iraqi positions, the used weapons that sting like scorpions, but which were not fatal to the government of Iraq.

• They were told not to harm grass, plant, or tree, but only those without a mark on the forehead.⁴

  • Pilots were only allowed to attack military installations manned by Islamic men, not civilian or domestic targets nor women. Prophetically Americans are those with a mark on the forehead -- it means the "foregetful ones" and is what America's tribal name means.

• They were not given power to kill, but only torture for five months.⁵

  • America and its allies were unsuccessful at killing the leader of Iraq, as the Bible predicted. It was 5 months from the first use of force to the United Nations sanctions of Iraq.

• During those days men will seek death, but it will elude them.⁶

  • A curious feature of the war was the dramatic number of Iraqi military who surrendered quickly and willingly. They too wanted the death of their army, but it eluded them. The war itself ended in stalemate, with both the West and Iraq seeking the death of the other. Neither recieved what they wanted.

• The faces of the locusts looked like horses and resembled human faces.⁷

  • The masks warn by the pilots and the gas masks warn by ground personnel are both pictured here. Symbolically horse represents worldly power and man represents the west. Nixon's resignation was on the date for the fall of man. The ones who flew through the smoke were mostly "man."

• Hair like women's hair, teeth like lion's teeth.⁸

  • Americans were shocked with their women pilots became prisoners of war. That women were in battle was a shock to John and a feature that God wanted us to notice. There is also an illusion here to prostitution, the United States here being that prostitute.

• Sound like the sound of horses rushing into battle, or chariots rushing into battle.⁹

  • This nearly ends the passage and places the ground war at the end of this war.

• They had power to torment people for five months.¹⁰

  • The five month period is seen at the end again, and within five months nearly everything had returned to normal. The Kuwait government had returned, the Iraqi government had regained control of southern Iraqi and a new stalemate ensued with the weapons inspects of the following seven years.

Of course the last verse in the passage is hard. Who might the "destroyer" be? Is it the United States in some future dual or is it Iraq in some future dual? Only time will tell.

This is Revelation's first "woe." The text includes a break suggesting that it would be followed by a break in international tensions. That break would last until Clinton began bombing again of Iraq in December of 1998. Here the timeline begins to pick up again but they point still further ahead at events in the summer of 2000 as the next woe.

The Book of Daniel also discusses the Persian Gulf War, and its aftermath. We turn there now.

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¹Revelation 9:1    
²Revelation 9:2    
³Revelation 9:3    
⁴Revelation 9:4    
⁵Revelation 9:5    
⁶Revelation 9:6    
⁷Revelation 9:7    
⁸Revelation 9:8    
⁹Revelation 9:9    
¹⁰Revelation 9:10