Harry Shepherd Prophecy 14

The fourteenth installment of my grandfather Shepherd's prophecy book, copied here without comment.
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From Zechariah 12:7-10, 14:2, and Revelation 11:1 it seems there will be an element and place of protection for a Jewish remnant in Jerusalem. Yet the invading forces will besiege the city. In connection with their military equipment they will have horses (probably cavalry), mules, camels and asses. Finally Jerusalem will fall. The Jew-hating soldiers will rifle the houses, ravish the daughters of Abraham and carry into captivity half of the city. Then will come the climax of this great and final battle of this age. The Bible says in Zechariah 14:3: "Then shall the Lord (Jehovah—Jesus Christ) go forth, and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle" (Joshua 10:14). This "going forth" is described in Revelation 19:11-21 shortly after the marriage of Jesus Christ, the divine Bridegroom, to His earthly bride, the true Church and quickly following the great marriage supper. By referring to Zechariah 14:4 we conclude that on His white charger He leads the armies of heaven on a sort of honeymoon down to the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem.

To round out the setting further we need to notice that Armageddon is the harvest of the vine of the earth, the godless, and a wine-press scene. In Bible days grape juice was obtained by placing the grapes in circular vats and letting men bare-footed tramp the juice out. Naturally they would stain their raiment with running around in the vat. At Armageddon the grapes for the vats are the armies of all nations and the vats are filled to overflowing. The treader is Jesus Christ, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5) Who has left His heavenly covert with a "roar from on high" (Jeremiah 25:30 and 38). When His hallowed feet shall touch Mt. Olivet as mentioned before it will cleave asunder from east to west and half of it "shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south," ( Zechariah 14:4), making a very great valley under such an earthquake as was never on earth before. (Revelation 16:18). Besieged Jerusalem was divided into three parts, Rome, Paris, Berlin, London, New York "and the cities of the nations fell" with their statues and monuments (Revelation 16:19-21). The configuration of the earth's surface was changed, for "every island fled away." Also the Alps, the Andes, the Rockies and "mountains were not found" (verse 20). The consequent result of this terrible earthquake in the nations was the loss of multitudes of lives. Simultaneous with all of this is another phase of truth about the Armageddon scene.

We refer to Isaiah 63:1-4. It would seem from this passage that the treader of the wine press goes from Olivet to Bozrah in Edom and alone treads northward the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God along the 200-mile battle front from Bozrah to Armageddon, dying His garments with the blood of His enemies. (Here He is also the smiting stone of Daniel 2:45 "cut out of the mountain without hands"). When he encounters their cavalry He smites the horses with terror and blindness and their riders with insanity till probably they, caught in the "great tumult from the Lord" with the rest of the invading host will turn on each other to help destroy themselves and others in their armies (Zechariah 12:4 and 14:12). Two more critical phases of the battle will add to its awful carnage. At this juncture the Lion of the tribe of Judah, in His wrath, will deal two trip-hammar blows against His enemies and the enemies of the descendants of Abraham. We gather this from Jeremiah 25:32, 33 and Revelation 16:21. According to these passages He will raise up a great whirlwind (great tempest A. S. V.) and hail storm far, far worse than Hurricane Donna which brought devastation to Florida this year. This storm will wreak havoc "from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth." As these hailstones are to weigh a talent and as the Attic talent was about fifty-six pounds and a Jewish talent about 102 pounds it is likely that these stones will vary between these two weights. We can hardly conceive of the damage, devastation, ruin and death that this terrible storm will bring to the armies at Armageddon and to people and buildings all over the world. The other blow is a living death upon those who have escaped other destructions by means of "their flesh consuming away (possibly rotting) while they stand upon their feet, their eyes consuming away in their holes and their tongues consuming away in their mouths." The cavalry of these armies, their mules, camels, asses and beasts shall consume away like the soldiers. By these two frightful blows shall these invading forces be battered and inflicted till blood will come out of this Armageddon wine press for 200 miles unto the horse bridles (Revelation 14:20). According to Jeremiah 25:33 there will be no mourners, no undertakers and no funerals for these slain but according to Revelation 19:17 and 18 God will give their bodies to the fowls of the heavens in a great supper. The commander of these armies, the antichrist, and the false prophet seemed to have escaped death for they both were cast alive into the final hell—the "lake of fire burning with brimstone." (Revelation 19:20). I think they received resurrection bodies like the lost dead will have after the Judgment of the great white throne because they were still alive 1000 years later when Satan was cast into the same final hell. Thus we see according to the fate of the antichrist and and the false prophet, and according to God's Fourth Promise to Abraham may and are a great determining factor in the destinies of nations and individuals.