Words of Scripture
Words that across the millennia point to this hour — from the prophets of the Old Covenant through the words of Jesus to the Revelation of John. 27 verses from the King James Bible, drawn from across the whole canon of Scripture.
The Bible does not use the term “Third World War”. It does know war as a sign of the last days, and it describes it with a precision against which every later vision must be measured. Anyone who wants to know what is actually attested about the great war to come will find the standard here — not in a seer, but in Scripture itself.
The 27 verses below are grouped by theme: from the Olivet discourse of Jesus through the horsemen of Revelation and the storm of Gog out of the north to the signs in the heavens and the outcome God has promised. Each group is briefly placed in context, so that it becomes clear what the verses aim at — and what they do not.
On the Mount of Olives the disciples ask for the sign of his coming. Jesus’ answer is the Bible’s most important source on the wars of the end times — and it opens with a warning against panic. Wars and rumours of wars are not the end but the beginning of the birth pangs. Anyone arguing for a Third World War from Scripture must begin here; and here too stands the sentence that forbids all calculation of dates.
Five verses about the war itself. The red horse of Revelation takes peace from the earth; Ezekiel sees Gog coming up like a storm to cover the land — the passage from which the reading of an attack from the north derives. Zechariah describes a plague whose effect reminded twentieth-century readers of radiation weapons, and Paul names the moment when everyone is calling “peace and safety”.
Scripture links the war with cosmic signs: appearances in sun, moon and stars, distress of nations, the elements passing away. Daniel calls it a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. These are the images on which the later traditions of the seers — from the cross in the sky to the three days of darkness — were modelled.
Eight verses on the character of the last days and on what follows them. Paul speaks of perilous times, Daniel of running to and fro and of knowledge increasing. Between them stand Micah and Isaiah with the image that overarches every word of war in the Bible: swords beaten into ploughshares, and no one learning war any more. The biblical outcome of the end times is not annihilation but peace.
Jesus compares the days before his coming to the days of Noah: they ate, they drank, they married — and knew nothing until the flood came. From this follows not a calculation but a posture. Anyone attaching a date to the Third World War contradicts precisely these verses; they call for watchfulness, not for deadlines.
The final three verses lead beyond the war. The kings of the earth are gathered to the place called Armageddon; then appears the one whose name is King of kings, and last of all stands the great white throne. Scripture ends not with a battle but with a judgment — and with a new heaven and a new earth.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet.
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.
And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.