The Middle East is a deadly witch's brew containing religious extremism, violence, unremitting hatred, intolerance, unmitigated resentment . . .
     As is well known, millions of Muslims who follow the Islamist religion view the United States with contempt and hatred and would like nothing more than to bring about our utter destruction. The United States has few friends among the masses of Arabs. Millions of Muslims would like to erase all "infidels" from the face of the earth.

     The Book of Revelation as it has come down to us is highly unreliable. From The Urantia Book, Paper 139, "The Twelve Apostles," Section 4, John Zebedee, Paragraph 14:
      When in temporary exile on Patmos, John wrote the Book of Revelation, which you now have in greatly abridged and distorted form. This Book of Revelation contains the surviving fragments of a great revelation, large portions of which were lost, other portions of which were removed, subsequent to John’s writing. It is preserved in only fragmentary and adulterated form. [UB 139:4.14] [UB = Urantia Book]

     There is the distinct possibility that one or more hostile countries will destroy Jerusalem and a part of Israel with a nuclear attack before the Day of Armageddon ["the great and dreadful day of the Lord"]. If this happens, some of the Bible prophecies relating to Jerusalem and Israel will be negated. [Christians must then deal with the fact that the Bible is not infallible.]

     In spite of God's infinite mercy and the loving and never-ending ministrations of Thought Adjusters, the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit, huge numbers of mortals have filled their cup of iniquity to overflowing. And now must justice prevail.

     In the following passages Isaiah could very well be speaking to morally and spiritually bankrupt mortals of the twenty-first century.
ISAIAH 13:9,20
English Standard Version:
     Behold, the day of the LORD comes . . . to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations . . .
Good News Bible:
     The day of the LORD is coming . . . The earth will be made a wilderness, and every sinner will be destroyed. No one will ever live there again.
Comment: We can certainly hope that Elijah, our World Ruler, will have some suggestions as to how the desolate land can be reclaimed for mortal habitation.

ISAIAH 13:11,12
King James Version:
     And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make man more precious than fine gold; . . .
Good News Bible:
     The Lord says: I will bring disaster on the earth and punish all wicked people for their sins. I will humble everyone who is proud and punish everyone who is arrogant and cruel. Those who survive will be scarcer than gold.

ISAIAH 24:1
American Standard Version:
     Behold, Jehovah [will] maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Good News Bible:
     The LORD is going to devastate the earth and leave it desolate. He will twist the earth's surface and scatter its people.
Comment: Is it possible the poles will change places?

ISAIAH 24:3-6
Good News Bible:
     The earth will lie shattered and ruined. The LORD has spoken and it will be done. The earth dries up and withers; the whole world grows weak; both earth and sky decay. The people have defiled the earth by breaking God's laws . . . Its people [will now pay] for what they have done. Fewer and fewer remain alive.
Bible in Basic English:
     The earth will be completely waste and without men; for this is the word of the Lord. The earth is sorrowing and wasting away, the world is full of grief and wasting away, the high ones of the earth come to nothing. The earth has been made unclean by those living in it; because [God's] laws have not been kept by them . . . those in it are judged as sinners: for this cause those living on the earth are burned up, and the rest are small in number.

REVELATION 6:8
Revised Version:
     And I saw, and behold, a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death . . . And there was given unto him authority over the fourth part of the earth, . . . to kill with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
REVELATION 9:18
King James Version:
      A third of men will be killed by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone.
Comments.According to Revelation 6:8 and 9:18, about 60 percent [1/4 plus 1/3], or almost four billion, mortals will perish either on the Day of Armageddon or in the days following that Day. However, this estimate seems far too low in view of Isaiah's statement that "Those who survive will be scarcer than gold."

REVELATION 16:18,19
Literal Translation of the Holy Bible:
     . . . And a great earthquake occurred, such as did not occur since man came into being on the earth, such a huge earthquake, so great! And the great city came to be into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.
Good News Bible:
    There were flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, and a terrible earthquake. There has never been such an earthquake since the creation of human beings; this was the worst earthquake of all! The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of all countries were destroyed.
Comment. We surmise that John knew nothing about nuclear weapons. So he described the catastrophic event as a great earthquake.

REVELATION 16:21
King James Version:
     And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
Bible in Basic English:
     And great drops of ice, every one about the weight of a talent, came down out of heaven on men: and men said evil things against God because of the punishment of the ice-drops; for it is very great.
Question: Will all ice at the poles be broken into pieces?

Breaking up of Continents.
     It seems clear that on the Day of Armageddon, one or more of the continents may break into two or more pieces. Into how many pieces will the United States break?
ISAIAH 24:19
Bible in Basic English:
     The earth is completely broken, it is parted in two, it is violently moved.
Contemporary English Version:
     The earth is shattered, ripped to pieces.
God's Word:
     The earth will be completely broken. The earth will shake back and forth violently. The earth will stagger.
Comment. It is possible that thousands or millions of people will perish at points where the breaks occur.

Rocking Back and
Forth of Land Areas.

     If the continents break into pieces as predicted, it will be much easier for the smaller pieces to rock back and forth on molten magma with catastrophic consequences.
ISAIAH 24:20
English Standard Version:
     The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.
Good News Bible:
     The earth itself will stagger like a drunk, sway like a hut in a storm. The world is weighed down by its sins; it will collapse and never rise again.
King James Version:
     The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Comments. The rocking back and forth of the land pieces, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on both land and in the waters, will result in tsunamis which will hurl vast waves upon the land. Numerous land areas may be swept clean of all traces of civilization.

ISAIAH 34:9,10
King James Version:
     And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever [for an exceedingly long period into the future].
Bible in Basic English:
     And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire. It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up forever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it forever.

REVELATION 6:15-17
King James Version:
     And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, . . .
Contemporary English Version:
     The kings of the earth, its famous people, and its military leaders hid in caves or behind rocks on the mountains. They hid there together with the rich and the powerful and with all the slaves and free people. They shouted to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us! Hide us from the one who sits on the throne . . . That terrible day has come!"

     Isaiah, though he lived over 2000 years ago, may well have described the effects of the horrendous explosion on the Mediterranean Sea and other bodies of water.
ISAIAH 51:10
Contemporary English Version:
     Didn't you dry up the deep sea and make a road for your people to follow safely across?
English Standard Version:
     Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depth of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

     Following the Day of Armageddon, millions of people will perish from starvation, disease, pestilence, etc.
Revelation 9:6: . . . In the coming days "shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. [KJV]
     Not all persons will perish on the Day of Armageddon. But survivors face a horrendous death if they refuse to prepare for this calamitous Day.

     I do not know how many of the above prophecies are valid. However, taken as a whole, the prophecies assure us that the Day of Armageddon will end the world as we know it.

1. On the Day of Armageddon, all mid-east countries will vanish from the face of the earth. This means that Jesus will not rule for a thousand years from Jerusalem. Jews around the world will not be gathered together in Israel to assist Jesus in ruling the world.
     Jerusalem and a part of Israel may be destroyed before the Day of Armageddon.
     The belief that Jesus will remain on the earth for a thousand years indicates a lack of knowledge regarding universe organization. Jesus is the Sole Sovereign Ruler of our local universe of Nebadon. He is presently responsible for more than 3.8 million inhabited planets similar to our earth.
     Jesus has elevated Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, to the position of World Ruler. It is Elijah who will rule our planet for many thousands of years into the future.

2. On the Day of Armageddon the Mediterranean Sea will disappear in a flash.

3. Vast portions of the earth will be transformed into utter waste lands, fit for neither man nor beast. The face of the earth will be changed forevermore.

4. Viewed from a point in space, the earth will resemble that eternal burning hell that Christians believe in.

5. Millions of people around the world will be instantly incinerated as the force of the explosion rips through the planet.

6. The number of deaths to be visited upon an unsuspecting mankind is truly mind-boggling: The world did not save six million Jews. There is not a ghost of a chance of saving more than six billion people from certain destruction.
Comment. In brief, mankind is a sitting duck, waiting for the ax to fall.

7. The explosion on the Day of Armageddon will act as a powerful Xray on the DNA of every living cell on the planet.
Question. Will mankind experience a great leap forward in evolution?

     The effect upon agriculture will be horrendous. The sun will be obscured for a period of time by volcanic ash and smoke circulating around the globe. This will cause a drop in worldwide temperature. The lack of sunshine, the drop in global temperature, and the fallout from the explosion and earthquakes will render it impossible to plant and harvest food supplies over vast portions of the earth.
     Millions will wish they had died in the holocaust.
     The living will truly envy the dead.

     I was told by celestial sources that Osama bin Laden is the Antichrist, the Beast, and the False Prophet of the Book of Revelation. Is it he who will bring about the destruction of virtually every mortal on earth on the Day of Armageddon?
     If two or more nuclear weapons are detonated on the Day of Armageddon, he may strike without warning in several large cities.

     We do not know the date of the Day of Armageddon. However, the time lag will permit world population to prepare for the impending disaster.
Even now, the trumpets are sounding:
Revelation 8:2,6: And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. [KJV]
[The angels of nation life are the "angels of the trumpets," directors of the political performances of Urantia national life. (UB 114:6.8 4)]

     The Day of Armageddon will truly end the world as we know it. We might ask: Will every person on earth be given a preview of the events to come in the End Times by angels of the planetary government? If so, what method will they use?

Comments. Even before the Day of Armageddon, law and order will vanish during the Years of Tribulation. Many people will revert to a stage barely above the level of ferocious animals as they desperately seek to save themselves. Enraged, furious men totally out of control, who were assured by their Christian leaders that the warnings were false alarms will turn on their leaders, subjecting numerous of them to a violent death. Elected government officials at all levels will also face a violent death.