Apocalypse Unfolding Now (Christianity vs. Terrorism

(part 1)

Is there any safe place in the world?

Surely there are many places on earth where one feels more secure than others, but for now, the motivation behind my question is more in a context with global generalization in mind.

It is a reality that no place on earth is actually safe from violence and terror.

The many recent memories still playing up with our grey matter surely remain as various painful scars not only on a national but also global consciousness.

These terror acts have been there for decades, centuries, however, with a much and present stronger frequency, which constantly hammers our grey intellect in our very own present generation.

One cannot forget the memories of September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But terrorism is a worldwide problem.

In 2004, horrific train bombings in Madrid, Spain, killed around the 200 figure mark and injured 2000 people more. Ten bombs explode on four trains in three Madrid-area train stations during a busy morning rush hour. The bombs were later found to have been detonated by mobile phones. The attacks, the deadliest against civilians on European soil since the 1988 Lockerbie airplane bombing, were initially suspected to be the work of the Basque separatist militant group ETA. This was soon proved incorrect as evidence mounted against an extreme Islamist militant group loosely tied to, but thought to be working in the name of, al-Qaeda.

Apocalypse unfolding now is before our very eyes. In 2007, there is a global economic downturn, Arctic sea ice hits a record low, Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in Pakistan.

More relevant to our main focus theme, the bombings of Casablanca, Mumbai, Algeria, United Kingdom, Baghdad, and more relevant the Yazidi communities bombings which occurred at around 7:20 pm local time on August 14, when four co-ordinate suicide - bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi towns of Kahtaniya and Jazeera near Mosul.

The Iraqi Red Crescent estimated that the bombs killed at least 700 and wounded 1,500 people, making this the Iraq war's most deadly car bomb attack. It was also the second deadliest act of terrorism in history, following only behind the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Since declaring its caliphate in June 2014, the self-proclaimed Islamic State has conducted or inspired more than 140 terrorist attacks in 29 countries other than Iraq and Syria, where its carnage has taken a much deadlier toll. Those attacks have killed at least 2,043 people and injured thousands more. ISIS - linked fighting rages in Mindanao, Philippines. In Nigeria, for many years, the constant terrorizing of Boko Haram. Throughout the Middle East and Africa, countries have been wracked by almost non - stop war and violence.

More recent, in 2016, an ISIS claimed attack killed 29 people in a restaurant in Bangladesh. What is more riveting is the fact that this attack was carried out by a few kids from very affluent families with no material want can still be turned to this kind of ideology, motivated not just to the point of killing but also want to be killed.

That children of the country’s upper classes appear to have joined militant Islamism in an act of such brutality highlighted the radicalization among the largely moderate Muslim population, a process that has accelerated in recent years.

This year alone, since February, a terrorist wielding a machete attacked a soldier at the Louvre museum in Paris. In April, a terrorist drove a truck into a crowd in Sweden, a suicide bomber killed 15 and injured 45 in St. Petersburg, Russia, immediately followed by another strike in Paris with the shooting of 3 police officers and a civilian on Champs - Elysees. In Manchester, England, during a music concert, a suicide bomber killed 23 and injured 240. Soon after, in London, another attack was taking place when terrorists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then chased and stabbed those who fled, killing 8 and injuring 48 in the process.

Across the globe, by the end of summer 2017, there were recorded more than 530 terrorist attacks, and that is not including the thousands killed each year in local and regional wars.

War, crime, and terrorist attacks know no national boundaries. The constant conflict in the Middle East and the terrorism it creates, continues to be a massive global concern, causing the 'great migration' to Europe as never seen before.

Many questions arise from this daily violence, war and terrorism affecting the whole world. Will this be the end? Are we doomed to a future of violence without end? Will Christianity and Islam be in conflict for ever? Are these Biblical predicted acts of violence and terrorism lead to a World war III and Armageddon?

The conflicts among people, their ethnicities, and their religions, generate tremendous problems in the Middle East for a very long time and has remained beyond human solution.

Scriptures reveal that the Middle East region, Jerusalem in particular, will be the focal point of a global conflict leading up to the return of Jesus Christ.

Daniel 11: 40 - 43 and Zechariah 12 speak of a great future battle against Jerusalem. It has all the indications of being Armageddon, the last great battle on earth. Those who oppose God's people will not prevail forever. Eventually, evil, pain, and oppression will be abolished once and for all. Eventually all people will realize that Jesus, the man who was pierced and killed, is indeed the Messiah. There will be an awakening, with sorrow for sin and genuine revival as it is written in Revelation 5:13, " Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: 'To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!'."