By Trevor & Walid (Shoebat Sunday Special)
2 Esdras holds interesting keys in unravelling prophecy that focus on "Asia" (Turkey). Today, the U.S. by its attack on Syria and its persistence to remove Bashar Al-Assad, a protector of Christians. When such events happen I always get the naive comment that this is fulfillment of prophecy since Isaiah 17 predicted the destruction of Syria. It is not. Such comments including what the U.S. is doing in reality is clearing the runway for Islamist Turkey to soon enter Syria and transform it to an Islamist state.
For few months we warned people who scorned us when we said that Trump will not solve everything. In fact Trump has joined in the previous policies of honing in on Syria, yet we still have the attitude that Trump is King Cyrus and that he can do no wrong. In reality Trump is aiding Asia Minor, Turkey to revive its Ottoman dream. Yet the wicked will not see this for they worship men instead of God.
All the churches that were protected and defended by Bashar Al-Assad will soon have mosques where the rubble stands. The church of Qalb Lozeh, Serjilla, and the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites. This region is considered to be the original home of the “stylite monks” when asceticism spread around the world and the history of the monuments there goes back more than 1400 years. Information from the area indicates that the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites has been damaged when it was turned into a training-ground by a group called Liwa’ al-Tawhid “The Monotheism Brigade” and the interior of the monastery and church was damaged.
It is these pro-Turkey Islamist groups that the U.S. are currently defending.
A Syrian soldier surveys damages at Mar Elian monastery in Qaryatain, near the central city of Homs, Syria on Monday, April 4, 2016. Qaryatain used to be home to a sizable Christian population and lies midway between Palmyra and the capital, Damascus. Activists said last summer that Qaryatain had a mixed population of around 40,000 Sunni Muslims and Christians, as well as thousands of internally displaced people who had fled from the nearby city of Homs. Many of the Christians fled the town after it came under attack by IS.(AP Photo)
Syria will soon be taken over by the powers of Antichrist and only then will Isaiah 17 be fulfilled regarding the destruction of Damascus in which at the time of such destruction will happen way later when Syria is under the domain of the Antichrist.
While many who refer to Damascus's destruction in Isaiah 17 believe that this is to soon happen, they ignore that this prophecy happens when Christ comes:
In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles (Isaiah 17:7-8)
This scenario happens when Christ comes where the Muslim world will "turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel" and the Muslims will no longer build mosques and minarets that look like "Asherah poles".
So when some Christians rejoice over Syria's destruction believing that "God wills it," in reality they are supporting the Islamists. These ignore that the ultimate destruction appointed by God is not when Syria is under Bashar Al-Assad, but under Antichrist.
Prophecy is set up so that the sons of perdition do not get it.
THE APOCALYPSE ACCORDING TO EZRA
However, 2 Esdras is a non-canonical book. The book was not included in the Greek Septuagint and complete copy of the Greek text has not survived. But since the early Christians and the Church fathers quoted from this book, therefore its apocalyptic content is worth the study. Due to its apocalyptic content, the book also has been called Esdras the Prophet, Apocalyptic Esdras or Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra. Because the most complete extant text is in Latin, the book is also called Latin Esdras. There have been four books associated with the prophet Ezra (also spelled Esdras). In some circles these became known as 1, 2, 3, and 4 Esdras. In other circles, the first two of these (1 and 2 Esdras) became known as Ezra and Nehemiah, while the second two (3 and 4 Esdras) became known as 1 and 2 Esdras.
The first two of the four books belong in the Bible and are accepted by both Catholics and Protestants as canonical. In older Catholic Bibles they were called 1 and 2 Esdras, but now they are more commonly called Ezra and Nehemiah. The second two of the four books (sometimes known as 3 and 4 Esdras, sometimes known as 1 and 2 Esdras) do not belong in the Bible and are not accepted by either Catholics or Protestants. However, they were studied by early Christians as well as church fathers. What we will delve into here seem to agree with Scriptures.
Regarding the apocalypse, 2 Esdras begins with the Tribulation:
The beginning of sorrows, when there shall be much lamentation; the beginning of famine, when many shall perish; the beginning of wars, when the powers shall be terrified; the beginning of calamities, when all shall tremble. What shall they do, when the calamities come? (2 Esdras 16:18)
Jesus also mentions the signs of His coming again:
Famine and plague, tribulation and anguish are sent as scourges for the correction of humankind. (2 Esdras 16:19)
Jesus also quoted this in Matthew 24, "And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places," (Matthew 24:7).
So the purpose of the tribulation is not to punish the righteous, but the sinners. St. Paul in Romans 5 revealed:
"[...] we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope[...]" (Romans 5:3-4).
Esdras reflects the same issue:
Yet for all this they will not turn from their iniquities, or ever be mindful of the scourges. Indeed, provisions will be so cheap upon earth that people will imagine that peace is assured for them, and then calamities shall spring up on the earth—the sword, famine, and great confusion. 2 Esdras 15:20-21
The parallel between this passage and the Apocalypse is strikingly similar:
"The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts" (Revelation 9:20-21).
And today, the world plunges in unbelief. When we think of the Muslim east, we ignore that even in the West, many set up idols of "gold and silver and bronze" just as scriptures reveal.
The Kolowrat (Kolovrat, Collowrath) symbol is in modern ages considered as a panslavic symbol
It is not just Islam but idol worship is re-arizing in many areas where Christendom ruled in the past.
The fallen-away Christians are naive. They cannot see how fast the clock is turning back to the same time in history when Christ came to convert a pagan world. Every day that passes by is getting us closer to that point when paganism prevailed much of the western world. Today the rise of neopaganism reveals a disturbing trend becoming the fastest growing religion globally and is also virulently antisemitic. Besides over one billion Muslims with growing anti-semitism (Islam has pagan residues from pre-Islam’s Arabia), today we have an array of movements that labels itself “conservative” when in fact these are neopagan.
Today we have Slavic neopaganism, pantheists and polytheist theology, a focus on Slavic culture and folklore, and the worship of Slavic deities. Many of these are already being set up to march on Jerusalem.
All across Europe the perishing masses are being deceived by a carrot that says “stop Muslim immigration”. These swallow the cyanide; a massive rise of ultra-nationalism, fascism, Nazism and antisemitism. In what used to be Orthodox Greece, we have the Golden Dawn and Jobbik in Hungary have arrived in rather conservative traditional fascist form. Evolian traditionalism and identity politics including neo-Nazi milieus like the Allgermanische Hednische Front, or the neopagan Heathen Front, associated with convicts like Varg “Grishnac” Vikernes and Hendrik Möbus. While the “counterjihadist” profile is part of the landscape, these are antisemitic supposedly all covered in ‘conservative values’.
We also have ‘conservative’ neo-fascist, ‘conservative’ neo-Nazis, conservative ethnic nationalists or identity politics.
Then we have conservative European New Right, Evolian Traditionalism and Christian Identity.
In the West we also have ‘conservative’ Nordic racial paganism, ‘conservative’ Esoteric Hitlerism, even Nazi Satanism.
And then we also have the new ‘conservative’ Alt Right which is sweeping throughout all of Europe and the U.S.
These are not ‘the skinheads’. These are but a massive force and exposing them gains you nothing but the label of being pro-Muslim immigration.
While it is okay to be anti-Muslim immigration, but what about being antisemitic, racist or anti-Jerusalem? European evil planners by bringing in the Muslim hoard, not only knew how to keep the sheep completely silent, but finally gained their support in their ultimate agenda in turning Europe fascist.
Today, if you go against these, you are instantly labeled as ‘pro-Muslim immigration’, even though you are not. These deceive by coming across as anti-liberalism, anti-immigration and anti-multiracialism.
Today many believe that "Trump will solve it all". But is that what scriptures teach?
St. Paul warns that "When they say: 'There is peace and security', then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!" (1 Thessalonians 5:3)
This is also found in the next passage in Esdras:
The calamities draw near, and are not delayed. Just as a pregnant woman, in the ninth month when the time of her delivery draws near, has great pains around her womb for two or three hours beforehand, but when the child comes forth from the womb, there will not be a moment’s delay, so the calamities will not delay in coming upon the earth, and the world will groan, and pains will seize it on every side. 2 Esdras 16:37-39
Therefore, in these selected verses, it is clear that Ezra prophesied of the days we are in. We should not fear. We should make every effort to live rightfully before the eyes of God:
He formed human beings and put a heart in the midst of each body, and gave each person breath and life and understanding and the spirit of Almighty God, who surely made all things and searches out hidden things in hidden places. He knows your imaginations and what you think in your hearts! Woe to those who sin and want to hide their sins! The Lord will strictly examine all their works, and will make a public spectacle of all of you. You shall be put to shame when your sins come out before others, and your own iniquities shall stand as your accusers on that day. What will you do? Or how will you hide your sins before the Lord and his glory? Indeed, God is the judge; fear him! Cease from your sins, and forget your iniquities, never to commit them again; so God will lead you forth and deliver you from all tribulation. 2 Esdras 16:61-67
Yet many keep sinning the same sins believing that since Jesus died on the cross that they are immune. But without continual confession and repentance and change, there is no salvation for the lost.
In the following selected passages, reveals that 2 Esdras geographically pinpoints Turkey and Arabia as destined to destruction:
And you, Asia, who share in the splendour of Babylon and the glory of her person— woe to you, miserable wretch! For you have made yourself like her; you have decked out your daughters for prostitution to please and glory in your lovers, who have always lusted after you. You have imitated that hateful one in all her deeds and devices. Therefore God says, I will send evils upon you: widowhood, poverty, famine, sword, and pestilence, bringing ruin to your houses, bringing destruction and death. And the glory of your strength shall wither like a flower when the heat shall rise that is sent upon you. You shall be weakened like a wretched woman who is beaten and wounded, so that you cannot receive your mighty lovers. Would I have dealt with you so violently, says the Lord, if you had not killed my chosen people continually, exulting and clapping your hands and talking about their death when you were drunk? 2 Esdras 15:46-52
Here, we have a pinpointing of Asia. In the canonical books we have in Ezekiel speaking of "Meshech and Tubal" which are in Asia Minor. Christ also spoke of Pergamum in Asia Minor as the seat of satan.
And so now we know why the Apocalypse mentions Asia: "John to the seven churches that are in Asia," (Revelation 1:4), and Jesus instructed John to write to the seven churches that are located in today Turkey, "Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea," (Revelation 1:11).
This was the center of Christianity now turned apostate Muslim. Without Ezekiel, Christ's reference to Pergamum, Esdras ... these all confirm which geographic location did the prophets foretell as to where is Antichrist's center.
Therefore, there should be no doubt to understand what God intended for the Apocalyptical vision seen by John to pinpoint the exact location where the kingdom of the Antichrist will come from. It is where the seven churches were, at the heart of where Christ speaks of the seven lampstands taken over by the powers of Antichrists where He calls it out:
“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
The Ottoman conquered the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453 when they took the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the seat of the Patriarchate of the Eastern Church.
But there lays an important landmark for Christendom. The Hagia Sophia was a Christian temple which was literally considered the Temple of God. Sophia is the Wisdom of God. Most of the Eastern Church Fathers and later Byzantine writers (Justin the Martyr, Athenagoras of Athens, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Methodius of Olympus, Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril of Jerusalem, Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, Atha- nasius the Sinaite, patriarch of Constantinople Germanus, Theodore the Studite, Symeon the Metaphrast, Symeon the New Theologian and Philotheus Coccinus) leave no doubt to the readers that the personified Wisdom of God they meet in the Old Testament, is a symbolic representation of Christ – the Logos before the Incarnation.
While the Temple of God in scripture is the magnificent Church militant(on earth) with the Church triumphant (in heaven), Hagia Sophia, having been dedicated to the Son of God, does qualify, in the tangible sense on earth as the Temple of God since Jesus is God. When scriptures speak of Antichrist setting himself in the Temple of God, it does not specify Jerusalem. Keep in mind that the first set of prophecy regarding Christ's first coming were not fulfilled as the masses expected but were fulfilled as the text stated and in a sense that only few foresaw where they examined a greater spiritual outcome.
When it comes to prophecy, it must be viewed in a different sense than the carnal.
This sacred house of God, has been taken, plundered, and desecrated by the Ottoman. God will avenge that loss one day soon.
The Hagia Sophia today
And for decades the West stood with Turkey and Saudi Arabia. This week, the U.S. bombed Syria which opens the door for Turkey with its expansion through the buffer zone into northern Syria as well as its supposed re-taking land from ISIS. In other words, when the U.S. attacks Syria, they aid the Islamist takeover of Syria and aid Turkey's Islamist expansion into the region while Trump simply gives lip service saying "I will destroy ISIS". No, he will have an allusion that Turkey will destroy ISIS while all what will happen is that ISIS will go into circulation under different Islamist brigades fighting for Turkey and supported by the U.S.
How does that make any commonsense. But the lazy and the naive servants will continue to scorn, not Turkey, but us.
But this scenario will change only in the end. In 2 Esdras it states "you cannot receive your mighty lovers."
So this coalescing with Turkey will end at some point. This is speaking of "mighty lovers" who are the most powerful nations (U.S., Russia) and Esdras says that this love-affair will end. This same connect of the mighty nations, even most likely including Russia are spoken of by Ezekiel 28:7-8:
“Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of [them that are] slain in the midst of the seas”. (Ezekiel 28:7-8)
Eventually, the most powerful will fight against the Islamist nations. The U.S. and Russia will continue to be the strongest military powers and will stand against Turkey in the end.
The U.S. is likely “the strongest of fortresses” (Daniel 11:39) which will eventually destroy the Islamic alliance. The naval armada of the U.S., Italy, Greece, Spain (Ships of Chittim) and others will crush the Islamic alliance in the sea.
The use of the phrase, “Terrible of the nations” does not mean awful or ugly but “terrible in battle”, as in “the most powerful nations on earth” just as in 2 Esdras, "mighty" "lovers".
But Esdras puts a link that is unknown unless we read Esdras. It says that Asia's "lovers" where these "mighty" nations. Turkey is currently in NATO. So Esdras amazingly reveals that Turkey "Asia" would be an ally and that then it will split "you cannot receive your mighty lovers".
Then we have "the heat shall rise that is sent upon you" is the either nuclear or the intensifying heat of the Sun:
The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (Isaiah 30:26)
Here we could have a double meaning. The "moon", Turkey's symbol and the crescent which is under the woman's feet in Revelation 12, will possibly be a hint that Turkey will heat up as the sun "The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter." The Sun and other stars as a source of heat and light but the fusion of nuclei in a star, starting from its initial hydrogen and helium abundance, provides that energy and synthesizes new nuclei as a byproduct of the fusion process. The prime energy producer in the Sun is the fusion of hydrogen to form helium, which occurs at a solar-core temperature of 14 million kelvin. But this could also allude to a nuclear war. This is likely as we see the results mentioned by Zechariah the prophet:
And this shall be the plague where with the Lord shall strike all nations that have fought against Jerusalem: the flesh of every one shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. (Zechariah 14:12)
Was Zechariah a nuclear scientist to have been able to predict the effects of nuclear warfare or was he simply the perfect guesser? There are only two choice, unless of course, God is the perfect guesser?
Therefore, Antichrist does not rule the entire globe as is commonly thought, nor is he the ruler of the most powerful nation on earth and he does not necessarily hold nuclear bombs.
Such issues makes it interesting as to why in this book, the fate of Asia is tied to Babylon and is why it calls Asia a miserable wretch. Further, in 2 Esdras 15:52-54 it states that God threatened violence:
"Would I have dealt with you so violently, says the Lord, if you had not killed my chosen people continually, exulting and clapping your hands and talking about their death when you were drunk?"
And who is the chosen people God speaks of here? St. Peter gives the answer:
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy," (1 Peter 2:9-10).
These were not originally considered the people of God, Israel, but are gentiles and now has become the Israel of God.
Furthermore, the Ottoman's religion is Islam. Since Islam was born in Saudi Arabia, it would make sense that God tied the fate of Asia, or Turkey, to that of Saudi Arabia:
‘Come, I will show you the judgement of the great whore who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk.’ Revelation 17:1-2
The fate is now sealed. The great whore has caused people to be drunk. John continued:
The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations.’ And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. Revelation 17:4-6.
On the left is Mecca, literally sitting in the desert wilderness as John mentions and on the right is the Vatican. Of the two, which qualifies to be the "woman" that is in the wilderness per John's vision in Revelation 17:3?
Let's compare this passage to 2 Esdras 15:
Beautify your face! The reward of a prostitute is in your lap; therefore you shall receive your recompense. As you will do to my chosen people, says the Lord, so God will do to you, and will hand you over to adversities. Your children shall die of hunger, and you shall fall by the sword; your cities shall be wiped out, and all your people who are in the open country shall fall by the sword. Those who are in the mountains and highlands shall perish of hunger, and they shall eat their own flesh in hunger for bread, and drink their own blood in thirst for water. Unhappy above all others, you shall come and suffer fresh miseries. As they pass by they shall crush the hateful city, and shall destroy a part of your land and abolish a portion of your glory, when they return from devastated Babylon. You shall be broken down by them like stubble, and they shall be like fire to you. They shall devour you and your cities, your land and your mountains; they shall burn with fire all your forests and your fruitful trees. They shall carry your children away captive, plunder your wealth, and mar the glory of your countenance. 2 Esdras 15:54-63
The hateful city? Interesting how John wrote, with the angel giving the interpretation of the woman and the beast:
The waters that you saw, where the whore is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore; they will make her desolate and naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put into their hearts to carry out his purpose by agreeing to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. Revelation 17:15-18.
The city is described as the mother of prostitutes. For many, it is Rome, however, to few of us, it is nothing other than Mecca, the infamous city where Muhammad was born, where he conquered it with his religion, established the practice of visiting Mecca to circle around the black stone (purposed to take away their sins), and it is from Mecca the sword of Islam spread, conquering, plundering and murdering those who refuses to convert to Islam.
The Ottoman would have conquered all of Europe if it was not for the Catholics who, under the inspired leadership of Pope Pius V, fought a successful naval battle known as Battle of Lepanto, and aided by God who caused storm to appear, sending the Ottoman's ships to the abyss.
Instead, the Ottoman suffered the greatest loss, and began the long decline of their power. It would not be until 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, the Ottoman was slain.
Islam's initial invasions continued from 629 A.D to 633 A.D., one year after Muhammad’s death the Muslim locusts entered Jordan massacring Christians in Kerak and in 636 A.D under Khalid bin Walid they crushed the Byzantine army at the plains of Megiddo (Armageddon) at the battle of Yarmuk. They then entered Jerusalem occupying it in 638 A.D. Amazingly, 1260 lunar years later in 1880 Russian Jews began flocking into Jerusalem, 1260 lunar years after Islam occupied it.
Heraclius eventually lost Syria (640 A.D.), Egypt and Byzantine Mesopotamia to the Arab locusts and the wars continued throughout all the seven Muslim caliphates until 1260 lunar years passed and the tide turned in 1871 A.D all the way until Allenby’s decisive victory at the same place where Islam entered: at Megiddo and in 1918 where the pro-Catholic Protestant Christian Allenby forced the Turks to relinquish control of Jerusalem to the British. Thereafter he was often referred to as Allenby of Armageddon.
Battle of Megiddo (1918) at Armageddon
So from when Muhammad gave that speech in 629 A.D (1871 – 629 = 1260 lunar years). In 1871 A.D, Turkey was struck with one of history’s worst famines and then followed by one of the world’s greatest locust invasions sent by God three years later in 1874 A.D, 1260 lunar years from when Islam did its first occupation of a Christian country invading Syria at 633 A.D in the Siege of Damascus. And then the locusts hit the Ottomans again in 1915 blocking the sun in Jerusalem with massive locust invasions in the United States right after when it declared U.S. neutrality in World War I in 1914 refusing to fight the Muslim Ottomans. During these times and before Communism the U.S. abandoned Russia which was fighting Japan and the Muslim Ottomans.
The U.S. as we see today, cozied up with the Ottomans, their "lover" in the beginning to later declare war on the German Empire and its Muslim ally on April 6, 1917 and is when the Ottoman Empire was abandoned by her "mighty lovers". In the coming Armageddon they will turn their backs on England and Russia including supporting the Antichrist against Russia and only turn around in the end.
Today, we are seeing the rapid revival of the Ottoman Empire and it is happening so quickly that by this coming Easter, Resurrection day next week, April 16th, 2017, Turkey will likely make a decision of no return where Erdogan is granted supreme status. This whole historic scenario of Ottoman revival will repeat since Solomon promised that "“History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
Spearheading these effort are being done by Recep Erdogan, the bombastic and arrogant Turk who dreams of reviving the Ottoman Empire. His pro-government publications have printed countless op-ed pieces where they all talk about reversing the fate of 100 years. The worst part of all of this is how America is helping him.
However, the story of the tribulation, the direction of the players will end with fire hailed on Babylon:
See the clouds from the east, and from the north to the south! Their appearance is exceedingly threatening, full of wrath and storm. They shall clash against one another and shall pour out a heavy tempest on the earth, and their own tempest; and there shall be blood from the sword as high as a horse’s belly and a man’s thigh and a camel’s hock. And there shall be fear and great trembling on the earth; those who see that wrath shall be horror-stricken, and they shall be seized with trembling. After that, heavy storm-clouds shall be stirred up from the south, and from the north, and another part from the west. But the winds from the east shall prevail over the cloud that was raised in wrath, and shall dispel it; and the tempest that was to cause destruction by the east wind shall be driven violently towards the south and west. Great and mighty clouds, full of wrath and tempest, shall rise and destroy all the earth and its inhabitants, and shall pour out upon every high and lofty place a terrible tempest, fire and hail and flying swords and floods of water, so that all the fields and all the streams shall be filled with the abundance of those waters. They shall destroy cities and walls, mountains and hills, trees of the forests, and grass of the meadows, and their grain. They shall go on steadily to Babylon and blot it out. They shall come to it and surround it; they shall pour out on it the tempest and all its fury; then the dust and smoke shall reach the sky, and all who are around it shall mourn for it. And those who survive shall serve those who have destroyed it. 2 Esdras 15:34-45
This is not easily deciphered. It could be that the tribulation sparks from Antichrist coming from the east, and from the north (Turkey) to the south! (Egypt, Cush).
The west at this point could be inactive. The west is involved at a later stage.
After that, heavy storm-clouds shall be stirred up from the south (Israel, Zechariah 9, Christ comes with the "whirlwind of the south"), and from the north (Orthodox Russia), and another part from the west (Southern Europe, ships of Chittim, Daniel 11) coming against the Antichrist.
"They shall go on steadily to Babylon and blot it out."
It could be that the initial destruction comes from its west (Persia, Isaiah 21) and the final destruction by Christ Himself which will include the greater Babylon "who is this who comes from Edom" (Isaiah 61) and Habakuk 3:
God will come from the south, and the holy one from mount Pharan: His glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. His brightness shall be as the light; horns are in his hands: There is his strength hid: Death shall go before his face. And the devil shall go forth before his feet. He stood and measured the earth. He beheld, and melted the nations: and the ancient mountains were crushed to pieces. The hills of the world were bowed down by the journeys of his eternity. I saw the tents of Ethiopia [Cush, Sudan, Somalia] for their iniquity, the curtains of the land of Madian [Arabia] shall be troubled.
It sounds like multiple nuclear strikes on Babylon. The hatred toward Saudi Arabia is very real. In the past few months, Saudi Arabia has suddenly reversed long-standing practice of slamming Israel. Instead of continuing the stirring of hatred toward Israel, they are now praising Israel. Instead of publishing opinions critical of Israel, they praise it.
Why? Because they fear Iran. What they do not truly know is that God already prophesied their doom:
"For I will rise up against them," says the LORD of hosts, "And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and offspring and posterity," says the LORD. "I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and marshes of muddy water; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says the LORD of hosts. Isaiah 14:22-23
The rivalry between the Saudi and Iran government are partly over oil, but it also over the perception that the Saudi betrayed Islam by allowing Western governments to access oil, control the oil, and to sow divisions among the Muslims living in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, Israel does not realize it is repeating the error of their ancestors when they turned to foreign powers for military and diplomacy to fend off judgements from God. In the end, God's will prevail, Israel was taken into captivity, and judgements were then executed on the captors.
The apocalyptic vision of Ezra via the reading of 2 Esdras 15 and 16 and of Ezekiel, Isaiah, St. Paul's and of St. Peter's, all are pointing toward the end of the world when God will finally have enough and act.
In closing, 2 Esdras 16 contains these instructions:
Listen now to these things, and understand them, you who are servants of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord; receive it and do not disbelieve what the Lord says. The calamities draw near, and are not delayed. Just as a pregnant woman, in the ninth month when the time of her delivery draws near, has great pains around her womb for two or three hours beforehand, but when the child comes forth from the womb, there will not be a moment’s delay, so the calamities will not delay in coming upon the earth, and the world will groan, and pains will seize it on every side. 2 Esdras 16:35-39
We should take to heart and know that God gave us advanced warning so we would be prepared for the Day of the Lord. Do confession. Do penance. Do everything we can do to be made right in the sight of God so we would not be ashamed when He comes to judge the quick and the dead.
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