Seven Signs of Christ's Return (1997) - full transcript

- This is one of the oldest, most revered

churches in the world, and
yet they tried to bomb it.

I'm standing in what for centuries

has been the prime church in Rome,

for that matter in all
of western Christendom,

St. John Lateran.

This church was founded
by Constantine the Great

in the year 314.

It had been standing open
for more than 16 centuries.

Then in 1993, a bomb went off,

heavily damaging this ancient church.



A bomb planted by terrorists.

I'm Edmund Purdom, and for the next hour

we will be exploring the connection

between world events and the
seven signs of Christ's return

as found in the Old and New
Testaments of the Bible.

Many people bound to
the Gregorian calendar

see a relationship between
the horrendous events

of the nineties and the new millennium.

Millions of churchgoers see the terrorism,

the moral decay, and the natural disasters

that so characterized this decade

as conditions pointing to the
second coming of Jesus Christ.

They're asking is ours the generation

that the prophets were
pointing their fingers at?



Are the end times at hand?

Millions believe that
there are several events

that must take place before
Christ returns to this world.

The Bible foretells of
seven momentous events

that will herald the
second coming of Christ.

I'm not a theologian of course,

but I can recognize
that one of these events

is contemporary history.

And another event is
history in the making.

The first event or sign
is the greatest homecoming

in human history, and the bloodiest.

The return to the Holy
Land of the Jewish people.

A biblical promise
fulfilled in our century.

The second is the
welding of western Europe

into an unprecedented superpower.

A union being forged in this very hour.

The third, the rise of a dictator

whose monstrosities could dwarf
even those of Adolf Hitler.

The fourth, the worldwide
dominance of a new religion

whose godhead will be
Satan, the Anti-Christ,

and the false prophet.

The unholy trinity.

The fifth is the building of
the third temple of Jerusalem

on a site where one of the

holiest shrines of Islam now stands.

A site that many Muslims have promised

to shed their blood to defend.

The sixth, an invasion of
Israel by ruthless armies

from the north, who will not
be defeated by military force,

but by the catastrophic forces of nature

of a magnitude never before known.

And finally, the bloodiest,
most destructive battle

ever to be fought by human beings.

Armageddon.

These are the seven
signs of Christ's return.

(booming)

(bell tolls)

A thousand years before
they planted their bomb,

St. John Laterans was the pope's church.

On new year's eve of the year 999,

pope Sylvester II said mass here

for a congregation clad
in sack cloth and ashes,

the trappings of penance for one's sins.

Many of the rich in the congregation

had given away their lands.

Others had freed their bondsmen.

Now in fear and dread, they
waited for the church bells

to usher in a new millennium

and the second coming of Jesus Christ.

(bell tolls)
(choral music)

The bells rang out.

It was now the year 1,000

but Christ did not appear.

Without event, the sun rose

on that first day of a new millennium.

Today people are searching for signs,

for explanations for the mounting
tragedies of the nineties.

Sudden earthquakes.

Volcanoes exploding and
cyclonic winds of ash and pitch.

Darkness at noon.

Hurricanes, fierce and frequent.

Assassinations.

Terrorism, before which the world's

most powerful governments seemed helpless.

The carnage of war and
the specter of AIDS.

Is our Earth like a toy
top in its final spin?

People want answers.

Some seek them in a haze of auras

and the properties of crystals.

In tarot cards.

In astrological chartings of the heavens.

Many Christians argue that
there's no need for stargazing.

They claim to see clear
cut signs of Christ's

imminent return, though they
admit that they don't know

exactly when this will take place.

They don't claim to be God's mind readers.

This book which occupies a
drawer in most hotel rooms

has been translated into just
about every language on Earth.

About 25% of all that's written
in the Bible is prophecy.

There are dozens of prophecies
dealing with Christ's

coming into this world, but
there are hundreds of promises

related to Christ's second coming.

Some prophecies describe
the times we live in.

Nation shall rise against nation

and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be great earthquakes,
famine, and pestilence,

and fearful events and
great signs from Heaven.

Many of the Bible's prophecies
were fulfilled centuries ago.

Some are being fulfilled
now, in our lifetime,

and there are others like
God's wrath pouring down

over the Earth that we hope will be

in the far distant future.

(thunder booms)

Many Christians are asking, can it be

that these prophecies will
converge in our lifetime?

Let us delve deeply into these prophecies.

We will learn that like the
seven candles of a menorah.

They light the seven signs

signaling the return of Jesus Christ.

We discovered the first
sign, Israel restored.

The prophecies are crystal clear.

Christ will not return to this world

until after the restoration

of the Jewish people to nationhood.

On that New Year's Day of the year 1,000

there was no need for Christians to panic.

At the time the Jewish people
were scattered over the globe.

Today Jews can celebrate their return

to the land that their
God had promised them,

and what a land they've made of it.

The dry, dead bones of
the past sprang to life.

Thousands upon thousands
of trees were planted.

Desert was turned into orchards.

The modern Israelis have made themselves

worthy of an ancient promise.

But not without bloodshed.

The Jewish people as a nation began

when the patriarch Abraham
obeyed his God's command.

- [Narrator] Leave your country

and go to the land I will show you.

- [Edmund] This is the
land his God promised him.

A crossroads between Asia and Europe,

at the heart of where civilization began.

A land of wild hills and
salt encrusted shores.

Geographically, the
ancient Jews were wedged in

between the superpowers
of Egypt and Assyria,

and surrounded by people's
determined to drive them out

of the land they believed
God had assigned to them.

Then as now, the promised land

was plagued by constant warfare.

In time, Assyria conquered the
northern kingdom of Israel.

Its 10 tribes are lost to history.

Later the southern kingdom of Judah

was overwhelmed by the
forces of Nebuchadnezzar.

And its people carried
off to Babylon in chains.

When the Persians crashed Babylon,

Abraham's descendants were free

to go back to the promised land.

Then, the promised land
was occupied by Rome.

Rome built cities, Rome built baths,

Rome built amphitheaters and
Rome brought in her gods.

The Roman yoke had become
more than Jews could bear.

They revolted, and there was a rebellion

that took mighty Rome
almost four years to crash.

Now the wrath of Rome came
down upon Israel in full fury.

There was an explosion of fleeing Jews

that reached to every
known part of the globe.

In their exile, they were sustained

by the promise as set
down by their prophets.

This is what the lord almighty says.

- [Narrator] I will save my
people from the countries

of the east and the west.

I will bring them back
to live in Jerusalem.

They will be my people.

- [Edmund] But Jerusalem
fell into the hands

of Muslim powers that Islamized it.

For centuries, the land called Palestine

was a part of the Ottoman-Turkish empire

and until the Turks were
defeated in World War I.

This permitted a trickle of
Jews to return to the homeland.

Then in the 1930s, from Nazi Germany,

came shockwaves of Jew hating that paled

the persecutions of the past.

Jews were marked with yellow stars.

Jewish storefronts were smashed.

Synagogues were burnt down,

sometimes with their congregations inside.

By the millions, Jews were shipped

to concentration camps
in a program designed

to annihilate the Jewish
people once and for all.

World War II erupted.

After Germany's defeat, Jewish
survivors of the Holocaust

sailed to the shores of
their ancient homeland

only to be turned back.

Then after nine months of debate,

the United Nations voted to partition

Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state.

On the 14th of May, 1948 the
new state of Israel was born,

and with it, the first sign
pointing to Christ's return.

People danced in the streets.

They came singing.

Jews as different from each other

as Morocco is from Manhattan.

Jews from the casbahs and the sooks.

From New York's garment district.

From hiding places in Amsterdam.

From England and Switzerland.

From refuge in Sweden.

From India and Ethiopia.

From Yemen and Detroit.

Theirs was a biblical bonding

to a land that most of
them had never seen.

- [Narrator] I will plant
Israel in their own land,

never again to be uprooted from
the land I have given them.

- [Edmund] These words of the prophet Amos

were spoken some 2,700 years ago.

Israel restored.

To the world it seemed
like the impossible dream,

yet one by one the barriers
that made it so were removed.

Many believed by the hand of God.

This sign has come in our lifetime.

How many more will follow?

The second sign, Europe united.

Then said the king.

- [Narrator] Surely your
God is the God of gods

and the Lord of kings,

and a revealer of mysteries.

- Once this city of Rome was

the greatest capital in the western world.

Today, Rome is still a capital.

A capital of one of several
western European nations

that have formed a confederation
known as the European Union

or more commonly, the EU.

The EU is dynamic.

It upholds the ideal of the united Europe

by integrating its member nations

economically and politically.

It adheres to common policies in trade,

in agriculture.

It fosters a single
European monetary system

for all of the member nations.

It supports a multinational parliament.

Should the EU decide to
build a United Europe army,

it will emerge as the Roman
empire of the 21st Century.

Remarkably, the whole EU
operation was foreseen

some 2,600 years ago.

It happened in Babylon,

the fabled Babylon of the hanging gardens.

King Nebuchadnezzar was
tortured by a dream he'd had,

and he sent for a Jewish visionary

named Daniel to put him at peace.

Daniel told him.

- [Narrator] Oh king your
mind turned to things to come.

- [Edmund] He went on to
describe an enormous statue

of four metals of varying
degrees of hotness,

depicting great empires
of the ancient world.

The golden head, Babylon.

The silver chest and
arms, the Persian empire.

And the bronze midsection,
the conquering Greeks.

The triumph of Rome over the others

is represented by the statue's iron legs.

Of particular interest are
the feet of iron and clay.

The 10 toes symbolizing 10 nations

that will yield their sovereignty to Rome.

Daniel had his own vision of the future.

It was nightmarish.

He saw four terrible beasts
rising up out of the sea.

The first, the winged lion of Babylon.

The second, a bear,
symbolizing the Persian empire.

The third, a leopard symbolizing

Alexander the Great and his empire.

The fourth beast, most
terrifying of all, Rome.

Which devoured the other three.

- [Narrator] It had large iron teeth.

It crushed and devoured its victims.

It had 10 horns.

- [Edmund] The prophet goes on to say

that only after this Roman
superpower is destroyed

will Christ return to Earth

and establish a kingdom
that will not pass away.

But the idea of imperial
Rome never really died.

The ghosts of the Caesars
have always loomed

behind European leadership.

In the eighth century, Charlemagne

was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

The holy Roman empire reached its zenith

during the Renaissance, under Charles V.

Napoleon so craved Roman imperial power

that he crowned himself emperor.

Rome reached well into the 20th Century

with tsar Nicolas and kaiser Wilhelm.

The titles of tsar and kaiser mean Caesar.

Benito Mussolini strutted through

his 21 year dictatorship
of Italy as a Caesar.

With wild enthusiasm,
the people hailed him.

(speaks foreign language)

meaning our leader, our leader.

He restored the old Roman name

for the Mediterranean,
Mare Nostrum, our sea.

The emblem of his iron
fisted rule was the fasces,

a bound bundle of rods
displayed in ancient Rome

as a symbol of authority.

While he ruled, he was pompous proof

that even in the 20th Century,

the notion of imperial
Rome is far from dead.

Today the flags of the European Union

are flying over many of the
ancient empire's territories.

The United States of Europe.

This was a post-war dream
of Winston Churchill

and of Konrad Adenauer,
the first German chancellor

after the Nazi surrender.

To this end, in 1958 Europe's leaders

met on Rome's capital lined hill

and established the
European common market,

which grew to become the
European Union we know today.

If the EU is indeed the
coalition of 10 nations

foreseen by the prophet Daniel,

it will become a political superpower.

Industrially, it will be

one of the most productive
powers on Earth.

It will support a huge multinational army

with the most sophisticated weapons.

And says the prophet, it
will enforce one credo,

one religious yoke on
all within its sphere.

Who will be the master of
this political powerhouse,

this economic giant,
this military colossus?

The third sign is the
coming of the Anti-Christ.

- [Narrator] There before
me was another horn,

a little one, which came up among them

and three of the first horns
were uprooted before it.

This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man,

and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

- [Edmund] The prophet Daniel
foresaw the rise of a dictator

of a 10 nation confederation
headquartered in Rome.

He will set himself up against Christ

in the last days before the second coming.

He foresaw a man who
uproots all who oppose him

in his rise to absolute power.

His eyes, the eyes of a man

show a keen intelligence,

and his mouth that spoke
boastfully foretells of a speaker

of great authority.

A charismatic orator who
mesmerizes masses of followers.

To him the people surrender all.

Their will, their loyalty, their love,

their freedom, their very souls.

They are convinced he is a savior.

In a world bleeding from wars,

he promises peace.

In a world reeling from
terrorism, he establishes order.

He stabilizes shaky economies.

He unites his followers
in a new world order.

To this suffering world, our world,

he will appear heaven-sent.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

He is the Anti-Christ sent by Satan.

A stern faced king.

A master of intrigue who will
succeed in whatever he does.

If prophecy rings true, it is possible

that the Anti-Christ is already among us,

and there is every reason to believe

that he will be a European.

You or I may have brushed
past him on a city street.

Or sat next to him on an airliner.

Or shared a bench with
him in a Paris park.

To millions of Christians,
he is the enemy.

In his scrabble to power, he will stack up

more and more popular
support, and why not?

To the secularized multitudes of the west

who are weary of endless,
overlapping wars,

of tribal rivalries and slaughter.

Weary of ethnic cleansings,

of the plague of narcotics,
of rampant terrorism.

Weary of the seeming
purposelessness of life.

A latchkey generation
of youth will fix on him

for an ideal for discipline.

Longing to be told what to live for

and what to die for.

Believers are certain that he
will achieve absolute power

over every man, woman, and child

within the 10 nation confederation
from cradle to grave.

He will determine who shall be born,

and who shall be aborted.

Who shall be educated,

and who simply shall be cannon fodder.

For his ballyhooed peace platform

will one day become a
springboard into war.

He will determine who among the aged

shall be done away with after
outliving their usefulness.

And he will tolerate no
dissension, no debate.

To grasp the appeal and the awesome power

of the Anti-Christ, we can
reach back into the past

to the blighted first
half of the 20th Century.

Adolf Hitler offers a realistic insight

into what we can expect
from the Anti-Christ.

Indeed when Hitler was in power,

there were those who believed

that he truly was the Anti-Christ.

This is understandable from
a study of Hitler's face.

It is obviously that
of the stern faced king

foreseen by the prophet Daniel.

Hitler was certainly a master of intrigue,

and the eyes.

Cunning, keenly intelligent.

As for Daniel's foreseeing a dictator

with a mouth that spoke boastfully,

Hitler was a spellbinder.

Through a series of
calculated street brawls

and his own hypnotic oratory,

Hitler became Germany's supreme leader.

He claimed he wanted
only to restore Germany's

rightful place among the
nations of the world peacefully.

A peace candidate.

Christians believed this
is how the Anti-Christ

will present himself in his rise to power.

By incorporating Europe
into his Third Reich,

Hitler was master of nearly
all of the Roman empire's

most important European colonies.

It seemed only a matter
of moving his capital

from Berlin to Rome itself.

But, Britannia, Britain

held out and fought him off.

As World War II turned against him,

it seemed less likely that Hitler

was the Anti-Christ of prophecy.

Yet Adolf Hitler is
the closest we can come

to understanding the Christian
vision of the Anti-Christ.

Like Hitler, he will mesmerize the masses

so that he can enslave them.

Hitler's thousand year reich
lasted less than 12 years.

During those years however,

the control that Hitler exercised

over peoples and nations was awesome.

Yet by today's standards,
the tools that he had

with which to control them were primitive.

There were no electronics as we know them.

The prophesied dictator, the Anti-Christ,

will be an updated Hitler,

but unlike Hitler, all
of the astanding advances

in electronic technology
will be at his disposal.

Vast media networks and mind control

electronics will serve his ends.

The most destructive weaponry
will be his to command.

And he will program
humankind to do his bidding.

The fourth sign, a new worldwide religion.

- [Narrator] One of the heads of the beast

seemed to have a fatal wound,

but the fatal wound had been healed.

- [Edmund] The final
decades of this millennium

have seen more than
their share of assassins

and would-be assassins of heads of state.

There was the attempt on the life

of president Ronald Reagan.

The wounded president survived,

but attempts on other
leaders were more successful.

Egyptian premier Anwar Sadat.

Indira Gandhi prime minister
of the Republic of India.

Israel's Yitzhak Rabin.

Christians are confounded
by the assassination

of the Anti-Christ alluded to

in the final book of the Bible,

Revelations or the apocalypse.

(thunder booms)

He will be wounded.

This is what prophecy
tells us, fatally wounded.

Then, as if by a miracle, he is healed.

In a sense, he overcomes death.

Perhaps in blatant mockery

of the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.

- [Narrator] The scriptures
tell us the whole world

was astounded and followed the beast.

- Then, this dictator, the Anti-Christ

will enthrone himself as a living god.

The world has seen this before.

We recall that in July of 1944,

several high ranking
officers of the German army

conspired to kill Hitler

with a concealed bomb, a deadly bomb.

Miraculously, Hitler
suffered only minor injuries.

To his loyal followers, Hitler had

not only thwarted treason, he had

supernaturally triumphed over death.

Again we turn to this demonic dictator

to better understand
the Anti-Christ to come.

While he held the world in his iron grip,

Hitler tried to edge God off his throne.

Heil Hitler replaced God
be with you as a greeting.

(shouting)

(singing in foreign language)

Christian rituals were
overwhelmed if not replaced

by pagan pageantry.

The honored place of the holy scriptures

was taken over by Hitler's
autobiographical Mein Kampf.

Hitler worship reached its
depths in the fervor of the SS,

the fuhrer's military elite.

SS units carried out their inhuman orders

under the sign of the death head.

The infant child of an SS
member was given its name

in a ceremony that blatantly mocked

the Christian rite of baptism.

Swaddled in a shawl of swastikas,

the infant was given its name at an altar

which held a portrait of
Hitler in place of a cross.

As British writer Clive James observes,

"not many of us in a secular age

"are willing to conceive
that in the form of Hitler,

"Satan visited the Earth and
recruited an army of sinners."

- [Narrator] Then I saw another beast

coming out of the Earth.

He had two horns like a lamb,

but he spoke like a dragon.

He exercised all the authority

of the first beast on his behalf,

and made the Earth and its inhabitants

worship the first beast whose
fatal wound had been healed.

- [Edmund] The coming of
another is prophesied.

A false prophet who will rally all peoples

to the worship of the world dictator.

The Bible tells us that he will cause fire

to come down from heaven,

yet he will not make himself
an object of worship.

Rather he will direct
the people's adoration

to the dictator, the Anti-Christ.

He will make the Anti-Christ's
lies sound like truths.

And so this dictator,
economically and militarily

the most powerful the
world will ever know,

will deem himself divine.

He will strive to duplicate
Christ's earthly miracles.

Where Jesus gave sight to the blind,

he will employ perhaps as yet undiscovered

medical treatments for blindness.

Where Jesus made the lame to walk,

he might restore deadened
nerves and atrophied muscle

electronically and chemically.

Where Jesus raised Jairus'
daughter from the dead,

he may Frankenstein-like using
astounding new technologies

to try and match the miracle,

or with satanic powers he may harness

the genuinely supernatural
in his miracle workings.

Because the Bible says it is Satan

who is fueling this duo of
Anti-Christ and false prophet.

As from the beginning Satan,
the adversary, the deceiver

is determined to seduce
mankind away from God.

The end times will see the
greatest deception of all.

Satan as the father.

Anti-Christ as the son.

And the false prophet as the holy spirit.

Man worshiping an unholy trinity.

Our times might welcome such a takeover.

Our western world is gripped
by spiritual confusion.

Petty prophets spring up everywhere.

Many truth seekers are seduced

into the ranks of bizarre cults.

In Jonestown in Guyana, a false prophet

commands his followers
to commit mass suicide

by swallowing a Kool-Aid
laced with cyanide.

800 men, women, and
children go to their deaths.

In following a false Messiah,
whole families perish

in a Waco, Texas shootout.

In Switzerland, and in Canada,

more than half a hundred members of the

Order of the Solar Temple,
vested in ceremonial robes,

either take their own lives

or are shot to death by fellow cultists.

The followers of another false prophet,

a self-proclaimed reincarnation
of Christ and Buddha,

release a lethal gas in a
Tokyo subway at rush hour.

Thousands of commuters are
hospitalized, some die.

Violence fueled by religious fervor.

Indeed the worship of an unholy
trinity may not be far off.

The fifth sign, the
rebuilding of the temple.

- [Narrator] I was given a
reed like a measuring rod

and was told, go and measure
the temple of God and the altar

and count the worshipers there.

- [Edmund] Jerusalem, the
golden, the city of God.

Its pavements worn smooth
by the boots of conquerors.

Assyrians and Babylonians,
Greeks and Romans,

Saracens and Ottomans.

Its gates the holy portals of pilgrims

Jewish, Christian, Muslim.

Its name means peace.

Its history spells
conflict, yet it is the city

for which almost every human
soul feels a homesickness.

This is Jerusalem's golden gate,

silent amid thundering prophecy.

Both Jews and Christians
keep an eye on this gate.

To Jews, it is the gate
through which the Messiah

will enter Jerusalem and restore
Israel to its former glory.

To Christians, it is
the gate through which

Jesus Christ will reenter his city.

Well schooled in these prophecies,

the Muslim Ottomans
sealed the gate in 1530

and knowing that the Messiah
as a Jewish high priest

is forbidden to cross a cemetery,

they fronted the gate
with a broad graveyard.

This is Jerusalem's
crown, the Temple Mount.

The biblical Mount Moriah in
the heart of the Jewish faith.

Though it covers only 35 acres,
it is the most fought over

piece of land on Earth.

It was here, as seen in this model

that King Solomon built the
first temple of Jerusalem

with the cedars of Lebanon.

But it was destroyed in 586
BC by Babylonian invaders.

By 26 BC King Herod the Great

completed the building
of the second temple.

It was his greatest achievement.

To this temple, its white marble facade

shimmering with golden ornament,

Jews from every province
of the Roman empire

made Passover pilgrimages.

It was here in the court
of Gentiles that Jesus

in his fury cleansed the temple

of money changers and hawkers.

The emperor Caligula's attempt
to install his graven image

in the temple so riled the Jews

that they revolted against Rome.

At first they were successful,

but in 70 AD Roman
forces captured the city,

burned down the temple, and carried

the sacred temple vessels
back to Rome as booty.

All that remains today
of Jerusalem's temples

is a retaining wall of
massive stone blocks rising

to a height of 50 feet called
(speaks foreign language)

or the Western Wall.

In all of Jewish civilization,
this is the holiest place.

What crowns the Temple Mount today

is a marvel of Muslim architecture, the

(speaks foreign language)
or Dome of the Rock.

It is as sacred to the
followers of Muhammad

as the temple was to
the children of Israel.

It shelters a rock upon which it is said

the patriarch Abraham prepared
to sacrifice his son Isaac.

It is also the rock from
which Muslims believe

the prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven.

Christians and Jews are forbidden
from praying at the dome,

or at the lovely (speaks
foreign language) mosque

which stands nearby.

Yet the mount is the only
site upon which the Jews

may build a new or third
temple of Jerusalem.

And rebuilding the temple is foremost

in the minds of most religious Jews.

The Temple Mount.

Both Jews and Muslims
claim it as their own.

A former deputy mayor of Jerusalem

called these conflicting
claims a time bomb

of apocalyptic dimensions.

By 691 AD, the Muslims had

completed building the Dome of the Rock.

It has dominated the Temple
Mount for 13 centuries.

They are not about to see it razed

to make way for a third
and final Jewish temple.

Many Jews pray for a miracle.

The temple will come from heaven, they say

but there are zealots plotting

to take the Temple Mount by force.

One temple activist, a former
soldier in the Israeli army

has attracted thousands of followers.

Our vision, he explains,
is to move the mosque.

To move the Dome of the Rock

and to have them rebuilt in Mecca.

A group known as the Temple Institute

is already preparing for a
revived Jewish priesthood.

Ritual instruments of
sacrifice are being made.

Ritual vestments are being sewn.

In the shadow of the Western Wall,

there are Talmudic schools
where eager students

are trained to perform the

ancient rituals of the Jewish priests.

A scale model of the third temple

has already been constructed,

yet the Muslims hold
fast to the Temple Mount.

In 1990 a riot erupted
when a group of Jews

tried to lay a cornerstone
for the new temple.

Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ

will not return to this world

until the third temple
at Jerusalem is built.

How is it possible with this tinderbox

situation between Muslim and Jew?

- [Narrator] He was given authority

over every tribe,

people, language, and nation.

- [Edmund] The 10 nation
dictator will intervene.

He will come as a peacemaker.

If possible he will
deceive even the elect.

Once and for all, he
will settle the conflict

over the Temple Mount.

There will be no further dispute.

The temple will be rebuilt,

and the children of Israel will rejoice.

He has done more than settle
a dispute, they'll say.

He has fulfilled the covenant

that the lord God made with Abraham,

but the celebrated dictator

has other covenants to establish.

He enters into an agreement in which

he restores Palestine to the Israelites.

This covenant marks the beginning

of a seven year period of
tribulation which will end

only with the second coming of Christ.

- [Narrator] He ordered
them to set up an image

in honor of the beast who was wounded

by the sword and yet lived.

- [Edmund] Now the false prophet,

that hidden spine of power, enthrones

the dictator Anti-Christ in
the new temple of Jerusalem.

- [Narrator] All the
inhabitants of the Earth

will worship the beast.

All whose names have not been
written in the book of life.

- [Edmund] His image is to be
worshiped, adored, prayed to.

All who refuse will be killed.

The betrayed Israelites
respond as their ancestors had

when the emperor Caligula tried to install

his image in their temple.

They revolt, they fight.

And the dictator retaliates
with such bloodletting

that it pales the Holocaust of Hitler.

The sixth sign, an invasion
of Israel from the north.

(thunder booms)

- [Narrator] You will come from
your place in the far north.

You and many nations with you.

You will advance against my people Israel,

like a cloud that comes over the land.

- [Edmund] As the times were straining

towards this last decade of the century,

the seemingly unbreachable
Berlin Wall simply crumbled.

(cheering)

The mighty Soviet Union disintegrated.

The world reeled from the shockwaves.

Biblical prophecy shed some light

on what this could mean
in the new millennium.

Despite the dictator's spurned Godhood,

Israel as a nation rests
prosperous and secure

in its covenant with the
federated states of Europe.

But the thwarted Arab nations
search hastily for allies.

Students of biblical prophecy
are inclined to believe

that a nation of the north
will do battle for them.

- [Narrator] The word
of the Lord came to me.

Son of Man, set your face
against Gog of the land of Magog.

The chief prince of Meshek and Tubal.

Persia Phut and Cush will be with them.

Also Gomer with all his troops.

The prophet Ezekiel
foresees a new coalition.

The nations of Persia and
Ethiopia, Put and Gomer

under leadership of Gog of Magog

to rival the federated states of Europe.

Biblical scholars have pored

over the names in this prophecy.

There is unanimous agreement on some

and disagreement on others.

Gog means end time ruler.

And Magog a nation that is
both powerful and terrifying.

Some see Moscow in the word Meshek.

Others disagree.

Before the events of
1989 it was easy to judge

the atheistic Soviet Union to be

the Gog of Magog in the scriptures.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union,

judgments have been reassessed

and the old forces are stirring.

Reunion is possible.

Scholars are certain that the invasion

will come from the north.

For thousands of years, the land of Israel

has always been invaded from the north.

Though north is not necessarily

the location of every invader's homeland.

The identity of the member states

of this coalition is quite clear.

Persia which is present day Iran is one.

Ethiopia once allied

with the former Soviet Union is another.

Put is the biblical name
for what today is Libya.

Only the nation called
Gomer is controversial.

For decades, Gomer was believed
to be communist east Germany

but now that East and West
Germany have been united,

there are doubts.

Significantly the names of these states

go back to the first book of the Bible.

To Japhet, the son of Noah.

After the great flood, the sons of Japhet

went north to the land of Rosh.

Rosh sounds like Russia.

As some biblical scholars
prudently point out,

the name Russia derived
from the Rus Vikings

who founded the kingdom of Kiev

did not come into existence
until the ninth century AD.

It is not clear why the
federated states of Europe

do not repel the Gog of
Magog and his coalition.

What is clear is that while
Israel sleeps in the security

of its new covenant, Gog
and his allies attack

like a cloud covering the land.

(booming)

The invasion is successful.

However, the invaders
are overly confident.

They presume ownership of

Israel's resources before winning them.

- [Narrator] I will
summon a sword against Gog

and all my mountains.

- [Edmund] Now the lord
God himself shows his face

on the side of his chosen.

- [Narrator] The fish of the
sea, the birds of the air,

the beasts of the field.

Every creature that moves along the ground

and all the people on
the face of the Earth

will tremble at my presence.

The mountains will be overturned,
the cliffs will crumble,

and every wall will fall to the ground.

(gunfire)

- Gog and his coalition are destroyed.

So great is the devastation
that it takes seven months

to bury all of the dead, and seven years

to dispose of the horrid debris.

But this war is a mere
prelude to what is to come.

Zachariah of the Old Testament prophesies

that all the nations will descend

upon the land of Israel to
do battle at Armageddon.

In 1942 December the second at this site

at the University of Chicago,

the atom was first split.

In the split second of
that first atomic flash,

a new age came into being.

The age of nuclear energy
and of nuclear war.

If the battle of Armageddon is inevitable,

it will be a Holocaust
of nuclear firepower.

If this comes to pass,
one could say the battle

had its origins at this spot

where Henry Moore's commemorative
sculpture now stands.

The seventh sign, the
battle of Armageddon.

- [Narrator] I will gather
all the nations to Jerusalem

to fight against it.

- [Edmund] Zachariah of the
Old Testament prophesies

that all the nations will descend

upon the land of Israel to do battle.

He foresees a battle
in which a goodly part

of the human race will perish.

The name of the place where
this battle will be fought

strikes terror into the heart.

Armageddon.

Many Christians believe that
the whole of Jewish history

is a chronicle of Satan's efforts

to destroy God's chosen people

and to upset God's plan
of redemption for mankind.

The time is coming when
this adversary of God

makes a great, final
effort to achieve his ends.

Megiddo is peaceful now.

In the ancient world, this was
a vital crossroads for trade.

Below the ruins of the city you now see

lie buried 20 other Megiddos,
one on top of the other.

The city has been rebuilt 20 times.

The valley of Megiddo stretches
from the Mediterranean

across northern Israel.

When Napoleon visited, his
military assessment was

that in the Megiddo plain,

nature had made her greatest battlefield.

We know Megiddo better by
its other name, Armageddon.

Through the offices of the dictator

of the federated states of Europe

and his false prophet, God's adversary

draws the armies of the world

to do battle in this broad valley.

It will be the last battle
human beings ever fight.

They march from every
point of the compass.

More armies sweep down from the north.

Other armies will invade from the south.

Under the God of war, the only god

that the Anti-Christ will
acknowledge other than himself,

the federated states of Europe

dispatch troops from the west.

Troops with superior weapons,

but an army of vastly superior numbers

pours in from the east.

East of the Euphrates.

Since this army is prophesied
to be 200 million strong,

one suspects a coalition of
Asian nations headed by China.

From north, south,
east, and west they come

and they clash here.

(booming, gunfire)

(screaming)

I saw heaven open and there
before me was a white horse

whose rider was called Faithful and True.

On his robe and on his thigh
he has this name written,

king of kings and lord of lords.

Christ who has returned in glory

judges the godless nations.

From his holy city, Jerusalem,
he will reign triumphant

and his kingdom will become eternal.

The unholy trinity is crushed.

Satan is forever banished.

The redeemed of humankind
live in the bliss

of God's unchallenged
reign over the universe.

To those outside the fold,
the prophesied future

may seem very gloomy.

The believers try to see through the chaos

to Christ's coming.

They claim that the message
of prophecy is not fearful.

It is charged with hope,
and they take comfort

in the advice given by Jesus
when he foresaw these events.

- [Narrator] When these
things come to pass, look up

and lift your head.

Behold I am coming soon.

My reward is with me, and
I will give to everyone

according to what he has done.

I am the alpha and the omega,

the first and the last.

The beginning and the end.

(soothing music)