This year marks the 70th. Anniversary of the end of WW2. May 8th. is known as VE Day, or, Victory in Europe, and three late summer dates chronicle VJ Day. August 14th - Japan surrendered; August 15th – Surrender was announced to the world, and September 2 - Ceremony and formal signing of surrender.
VJ Day marked the end of WWII, and the cessation of fighting against Japan. It is called "Victory In Japan Day or "Victory Over Japan.
I was ten years old when the BBC announced Germany’s surrender on the radio. It was an overwhelming sense of relief, of feeling safe, knowing that there would be no more V2 rockets flying over our house with the possibility of its power cutting out and it plummeting to the ground causing an explosion destroying lives and property.
My relief was small compared to the inmates of the Nazis concentration camps rescued 70 years ago. Those camps included this list supplied by Wikipedia, Auschwitz-Birkenau Belzec Bergen-BelsenChelmno Dachau Ebensee FlossenbürgGross-Rosen Janowska Kaiserwald Majdanek Mauthausen-Gusen Natzweiler-Struthof Neuengamme Nordhausen (Dora-Mittelbau) Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg) PlaszowRavensbrück Sobibor Stutthof Terezin (Theresienstadt) Treblinka Westerbork. Hitler’s programme to exterminate the Jews was halted, but not before six million souls perished in those camps.
There is a rise today of anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the UK, the highest last year since those horrific days seen in Germany decades ago. After the recent Paris attacks on Jews, some Synagogues in the UK have put barbed wire around their buildings, anticipating a terrorist attack.
Hitler’s plan for World dominion failed, as did his destruction of the nation of Israel, which failed too. All attempts in the past to destroy Israel have failed and any future attempt will fail also. God is sovereign and He will not go back on His Word that He gave to Abraham and David. He made a covenant with both men, with Abraham concerning the land, bordering the Euphrates and the Great River of Egypt, and with David concerning the throne. (Genesis 15 and 18, and David, Psalm 89)
A highly significant happening was prophesied in Jeremiah 25:11, which reads, “And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. God told Jeremiah two things, firstly that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon would make the land of Palestine desolate and secondly carry its inhabitants away captive for 70 years in Babylon (Iraq). Commentators place the captivity between 606BC and 516BC depending upon which of the three deportations of captives it referrs to. This 70 year captivity of Israel with Jerusalem trodden underfoot marks the beginning of a period of history known as ‘The Times of the Gentiles’. During this period four World Empires arose to dominate the known world. (1) Babylon: (2) Medo-Persia (Iran): (3) Greece and (4) Rome. All of these are past powers but a fifth power will arise having characteristics of these four previous kingdoms. The Book of Daniel gives the historical rise of these four kingdoms in the first six chapters, the last six chapters tell us prophetically something of the nature of the four and also of the fifth.
Jesus said in Luke 21:24, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” In Luke 21 and Matthew 24 Christ gave details of the rise and fall of the fifth power which is yet future. The fall of that fifth kingdom will mark the end of the times of the Gentiles and usher in a new realm, the Kingdom of Christ on earth.
Daniel chapter 9 tells us not of 70 years but 70 weeks. However these weeks are not weeks of days but weeks of years outlining a period of 490 years. These 490 years are divided into three, 49 years, 434 years and 7 years, and the final seven divided into two periods of three and a half each. That seven years is the Tribulation that will come upon all the world, but the second half is The Great Tribulation that Jeremiah calls ‘The time of Jacob’s trouble’.
At the commencement of the seven years Satan will empower a man, called ‘The Beast’ in Revelation chapter 13, and ‘The man of sin’ in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. He will force people to have his mark on their hand and forehead in order to buy and sell. Will that mark be his number 666? Over thirty years ago I gave a lift to a young man who told me he had an interest in numerology. He produced from his briefcase an A4 paper with some names on it, and alongside the name a number. Hitler’s name was on the paper, and Mendleson and others. Then he pointed to a number at the bottom of the sheet which was 666, and said, “That is my number!” I told him of the man in Revelation chapter 13 and what his end would be. I glanced across to see his face, one I shall never forget, it was evil! Was this young man playing a prank on me with his pre-arranged paper? I don’t know, but I do know this, the Man of Sin who is the beast could be alive today?
My dear reader if you are not saved, not born again, I believe that the time is short. It is essential for you to repent of your sin and receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour before He comes to make war with those who reject Him. Revelation chapter 19 verse 15 says, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Be saved now and be ready. God bless.
Written for Liverpool Photoblog by Stan Burditt.
