Monday Morning Music Ministry

3-9-26

Jesus taught about “wars and rumors of wars.” In Matthew 24 we find His warnings not only of events to expect, but the contexts we should anticipate.

At no time in recent memory have we confronted such real wars, virtual wars, threats of war, proxy wars, excuses for war, and euphemisms for war. Oh, and deadly, bloody, wars that are sanitized and marketed as righteous.

In all these regards I will invite the words of Jesus Himself into this message. He referred to the End Times, speaking to His disciples but also, of course, to believers today:

… The disciples came to Him privately, asking… “What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the End is not yet.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come….

“See, I have told you beforehand…. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”

There is much to learn here! Jesus foretells – He promises, not hints – of many, many things; signs of the End Times, of believers being deceived, of natural calamities and man-made disasters, and of… wars and rumors of wars. That situation seems to confront us today.

“Rumors” do not only mean gossip and speculation. The rumors today consist of wars we know only from TV and from marketing campaigns; that is, propaganda. Wars begun under false pretenses. Wars supported by populations who cannot correctly identify the issues at play.

Today – to address the Iran War – I assert that many Americans cannot intelligently defend their support of Israel in this conflict, nor acknowledge that America’s foreign policy has been hostage to Israel’s for years. That Israel has maintained false claims to “God’s promises” for years, despite the Bible’s definition of “Abraham’s seed” and Christ being the fulfillment of that inheritance (please see my three essays here from Dec 6-13 of 2025). That American Evangelicals have been complicit in Gazan genocide, the holocaust of our day.

Western Civilization has lived through such periods as the Thirty Years’ War, the Hundred Years’ War, even the “Phony War” at the commencement of World War II. A “rumor” certainly can mean a theory or an interpretation too. German, Soviet, and Chinese governments provoked local populations to justify military interventions. The United States clearly has done this in hemispheric situations, and to topple governments in Central Europe. History might record the past 75 years as the Era of False Flags.

Countries that have staged attacks on allies, or even themselves, have filled history books. Today, analysts and podcasts are rife with commentaries about Israeli terrorism against the British in the 1940s; about the 1953 Lavon Affair, where Israel recruited Egyptian Jews to bomb American targets and blame Muslims; about Israel’s lethal bombing of the USS Liberty by air and torpedoes; hundreds of deaths of the American Marines in Lebanon; since-debunked rationales behind American attacks on Libya and Iraq; countless reports that Iran has been “moments away” from developing nuclear weapons. All possible False Flags committed by Israel and/or the United States. Some analysts even suspect that Israel was behind the 9-11 attack.

Most recently, the “October 7” attack was a possible False-Flag pretext for Israel to ethnic-cleanse and occupy Gaza as part of its oft-stated goal of a Greater Israel that would stretch from the Mediterranean to the Nile and Euphrates rivers and into Turkey. It sounds absurd except for its endorsement by Netanyahu and Israeli leaders. Some analysts give credence to the suggestion of False Flags, pointing out that Israel can pinpoint missiles over 1200 miles to individual homes and a specific floor of a high-rise office building, but it “never noticed” the construction of hundreds of miles of tunnels, the removal of tons of dirt, etc., on its border with Gaza over the course of years.

What further possibilities are ahead? That is, what should we discern about plausible events – Israel and the US encouraging Kurds to attempt (again) independence by joining the war, which would draw their host countries Turkey (a NATO ally that Israel recently has threatened), Iraq, and Syria into the Iran War. It would push the current conflict towards a world war. Plausible too would be the “accidental” destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the second holiest Moslem site which Israel recently has closed and where Zionists seek to build the “Third Temple” in its place. Conspiracies, rumors – or prophecy?

False Flags… real deaths… false history vs current reality… these are among the things Jesus warned of. Even false assertions have real consequences. Deadly. For innocent people (the guilty often insulate themselves) and for policies. We are still a democracy, but have trouble learning the truth because of distortions and manipulations of corrupt media and suborned politicians. Are Jesus’s words about today? Tomorrow? The distant future…?

Thank God (literally) through the “fog of war” we have the Words of Jesus. When believers read about the Tribulation, we are chillingly reminded that things in this world might get much worse before the actual End of Days arrives. He tells us to be very wary of false prophets – those who twist Scripture in pursuit of political ends. He stated that we can be tempted to think the Rapture, or some Divine intervention, might be at hand.

… or not. Jesus’s prophecies mix warnings and reassurances. We must watch, and wait; to be ready. In the twinkling of an eye peace, or war, might come… and — always — rumors of war. Whether we be wary or nervous, optimistic or pessimistic about End Times, our best position as informed Christians is to stand on His Word… and be on our knees in prayer.

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Click: The Great Judgment Morning