No one could remain unmoved when international television showed Ukrainian people walking past dead bodies lying in the street. When war comes to an area, the people are traumatized into an almost zombie like state. How else can they cope? It is a case of surviving one day at a time.

I do not apologize for the graphic image. I doubt these people were really dead but posed, yet death is a reality for every human being on the face of this planet. Yet, it is something we put to the back of our mind, pretending we have lots of time left to give eternity serious contemplation, it at all.

Life In A War Zone

Television not only brings home the cost of being a television reporter in the front lines of a battle, but shows how human beings become traumatized and inured to life in a war zone, as the war in Ukraine drags on.

Live pictures of war zones are graphically blazed across the world in real time and we see dead bodies lying in the street. Sitting in the comfort and safety of our own home, we view the devastating effects when the leader of one nation is determined to obliterate another nation off the face of the earth.

The media then rushes off to the next dramatic event.

Dead Bodies Lying In The Street

The scenes on our television screens make the words of Revelation 11:8 come to life. ‘And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom (known for perverted sex) and Egypt, (known for persecuting God’s people) where also our Lord was crucified.’

These two witnesses will perform miracles like Elijah and Moses, in that they will have the power to shut up the heavens so that rain ceases, and to turn waters into blood, during the days of their prophesying. Imagine what the television reporters will do with that when it happens, across three years. It will be the days of John the Baptist all over again, of a voice crying in the wilderness. Yet, it could be incidents lost in the noise of media, unless God has His hand on it.

War is made against the two witnesses, and they are overcome and killed. Rev 11:9 reads, ‘Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.’

How much of that will get into the news? Perhaps it won’t be until their death is televised, after all there are many simultaneous conflicts, and we are only fed snippets, as the producers see fit.

More to Come

Christians around the globe, are seeing end-time prophecies fulfilled day by day. Events long prophesied are beginning to happen. Israel has long been in the gunsights of its neighbours. Read Rev 11:12, 13:

‘And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. They ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake, there was slain seven thousand men: and the remnant were frightened and gave glory to the God of heaven.’

Then will come the ultimate fulfilment. KJV Zech 14:4. ‘And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.’

Israel’s Remnant

There are around 70 bible verses that refer to a remnant of Israel surviving, as prophesied in Isaiah 46:3,4. Sadly, it is only a remnant who will listen, as the Apostle Paul talks about it in Romans 9:27: ‘Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.’

The remnant is a theme that began with Noah in Gen 6 and has continued ever since. Imagine Noah, his wife, their three sons and wives, going into the Ark and leaving billions of people behind, including their friends and relatives.

The Spirit Behind Dead Bodies Lying in the Street

We know the spirit that drives a leader to plot, plan and attempt to annihilate another group of people, or nation. It is a spirit that is as old as Isaiah 14:12ff.

David Livingstone Smith argues in Less Than Human, it is important to define and describe dehumanisation. “We all know, despite what we see in the movies,” Smith told NPR’s Neal Conan, “That it’s very difficult, psychologically, to kill another human being up close and in cold blood, or to inflict atrocities on them. What allows human beings to overcome the very deep and natural inhibitions they have against treating other people like game animals or vermin or dangerous predators?”

Yet, history is littered with such acts. We know a fox can do a lot of damage in a hen house, but what drove aristocracy to don special clothes, and go on the hunt? Imagine horses’ hooves pounding on the earth, a pack of hands howling in the chase, a hunt master blowing his horn and a tiny fox fleeing for its life? All in the name of sport. It is as if man has a primal urge to treat other creatures with total disregard.

Hitler had other people do his dirty work for him. We have to wonder if he ever killed a person staring them in the eyes. We sat glued to our tv sets as we followed the guys who killed Osama Bin Laden, but we didn’t have to pull the trigger.

Dead Bodies Lying in the Street Litters History

Human history is littered with examples, of dead bodies lying in the street, from the book of Numbers onwards. The Israelites were commanded to remove the Canaanites from the face of the earth. It was an order they did not fulfil, to their own destruction, as they took on Canaanite ways.

The Israelites fell to worshipping Canaanite gods, which included walking through fire and child sacrifice. How could a nation God had blessed, fall so far?

Not only that, they married Canaanite women. There are at least three incidents recorded when the Israeli men were commanded to divorce and separate from their foreign wives and children. How heartbreaking would that have been, presuming the Israelites married for love?

Dead Bodies in the Street and a Merciful God

For three years, the two witnesses of God call His people back to Him. Yet, the message falls on deaf ears, until their dead bodies are left lying in the street for three days. One day for every year they prophesied. Three days being highly significant, as Christ’s body was three days in the grave.

So, how do we relate all this to a merciful God? He has a plan and evil was defeated at Calvary. God’s timing is not our timing, as He dwells in timeless eternity. Where God is, these events are already done and dusted and we are already seated in Heavenly places. The dead bodies in the street are already resurrected. It’s like living with a parallel universe, but that is a discussion for another day.

Only a Remnant

We need to recognize that the world is a chaotic mess and men’s hearts are hardened. If Christ returned tonight for His true followers, how many of the nearly eight billion people on the planet would go with Him? Only a remnant. How valuable does God consider that remnant, when you think about the price He paid?

The only answer for mankind is to turn to Calvary. Without a firm belief in a loving, heavenly Father, there is no hope. Yet, it will always only be the remnant who will believe and be saved. We have to live every day in relationship, relationship, relationship, with our loving Heavenly Father, for the day is coming when the entire world will see the bodies of two prophets lying in the streets of Jerusalem. Probably it will be just a five-minute news segment, among all the other news of gun-shooting incidents and politics.

Lift up your head, for your redemption draws nigh. The time is close when the graves and the oceans will give up their dead, when the dead in Christ will rise and believers who are alive will rise and join them in the air. We can’t begin to imagine what that scene will be like, yet it will remain only a remnant of humanity. From Adam, to David, on and on across 7,000 centuries, they will rise as one. That will be a reunion and a half! Left Behind couldn’t even begin to capture a fraction of the reality of what is coming.

But for now, our hope lies in that there is a brighter future, no matter what situation you are in. You have a voice and are an influence in your corner of the world. Use that voice to the good.

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