One of my spiritual mentors when I was in my 20s was a great man of God named Carl Ketcherside (1908-1989). I heard him in a question and answer session one time when he was asked, “What do you think is the greatest evidence that the Bible came from God?”

His answer: “The Yellow Pages of the phone book.” Needless to say, we were all stunned by this response.

When the questioner followed up by asking what he meant, Carl said, “Look at the names of the banks, the names of the department stores, the names of lawyers and doctors and accountants. You will see one Jewish name after another. God promised He would preserve the Jewish people, and He has.”

In like manner, over 300 years ago, King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715) asked Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), the great Christian philosopher, to give him proof of the existence of God. Pascal answered, “Why the Jews, your Majesty, the Jews!”1

Both Ketcherside and Pascal were referring to the fulfillment of Bible prophecies about the Jews, one of the most remarkable being that despite their worldwide dispersion and unparalleled persecution, they would keep their identity and be preserved as a recognizable nation of people.

A Great Miracle
The preservation of the Jews has to be one of the greatest miracles of history. It is so remarkable — so historically stunning — that its uniqueness has been noted and commented on by a great variety of people.

Consider, for example, the great historian Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975). He fully recognized the unusual nature of the Jewish experience. In his ten volume work, A Study of History (1934-1961), he traced the rise and fall of 26 civilizations, developing a scheme of history which the Jewish civilization did not fit.

Toynbee ended up classifying the Jews as “fossils of history” because they seemed to be frozen in time, refusing to assimilate into the soup of humanity.2

Thomas Newton (1704-1782), the renowned British cleric and Bible scholar who served as Bishop of Bristol, declared in one of his sermons:3

The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most single and illustrious acts of divine Providence . . . and what but a supernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved.

Nor is the providence of God less remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, than in their preservation . . . We see that the great empires, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God, are all come to ruin . . . And if such hath been the fatal end of the enemies and oppressors of the Jews, let it serve as a warning to all those, who at any time or upon any occasion are for raising a clamor and persecution against them.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), the great Russian novelist, expressed his awe over the preservation of the Jews with these words:4

What is the Jew? . . . What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled . . . persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and fury, continue to live and to flourish . . . The Jew is the symbol of eternity.

To get a feel for how preposterous the preservation of the Jews is from a human perspective, consider this illustration by Rabbi Dov Greenberg who is the Executive Director of Chabad (the Jewish Hasidic Movement) at Stanford University:5

Imagine we could travel back in time and say to the great Pharaoh [of Moses’ time], “There is good news and bad news. The good news is that one of the nations alive today will survive and change the moral landscape of the world. The bad news is: it won’t be yours. It will be that group of Hebrew slaves out there, building your glorious temples, the Children of Israel.”

Nothing would sound more outrageous. The Egypt of Pharaoh’s time was the greatest empire of the ancient world, brilliant in arts and sciences, formidable in war. The Israelites were a landless people, powerless slaves. Indeed, already in antiquity, those in power believed that the Israelites were on the verge of extinction.

Perhaps the most insightful commentary on the immortality of the Jewish people was written by the American novelist Mark Twain (1835-1910) who was an agnostic and a skeptic. His article appeared in Harper’s magazine in 1897:6

If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one quarter of one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of.

He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk.

His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning are very out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself and be excused for it.

The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor; then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and the Romans followed and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

Twain’s question, “What is the secret of his immorality?” can be answered in only one way, and that answer was provided by David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), the first Prime Minister of Israel: “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.”7

The Magnitude of the Miracle The preservation of the Jewish people throughout their 2,700 years of dispersion is mind-boggling. Keep in mind that they were dispersed to over 130 nations worldwide, and they were brutally mistreated wherever they went. Will Varner, a professor at The Master’s College, has expressed it this way: “No nation in the history of the world ever has been exiled from its land, lost its national existence and language, and then returned as a people to that identical homeland and even revived its ancient tongue. No nation, that is, except one — the nation of Israel.”8

The relentless persecution of the Jews dates from the very beginning of their existence as a nation. The Pharaoh of Egypt attempted to murder all their male babies (Exodus 1:15-16). A government bureaucrat named Haman conceived a genocidal plan to exterminate all the Jewish people in Persia (Esther 3:8- 10). The Assyrian Empire conquered ten of the Jewish tribes and scattered them throughout Asia. Then came the Babylonian exile of the remaining two tribes and the two horrific wars with the Romans (70 and 135 AD).

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Jews were herded into ghettos and required to wear identifying symbols. They were subjected to pogroms, witch hunts, and blood libels. They were blamed for all the problems of society — even for the Black Plague. They were slaughtered during the Crusades, they were tortured during the Inquisition, and they became an object of complete annihilation during the Nazi Holocaust.9

Yet, the Jewish people survived and their persecutors ended up in the dust bin of history.

How could this be? Chance? Coincidence? Good luck? A roll of the dice? There are many theories.

Secular Theories
The most common theory offered by secular Jews is that the overwhelming persecution suffered by the Jewish people created within them an iron will to survive, and their genius as a people produced cunning and crafty methods of survival.10 But all such naturalistic explanations seem shallow and fall flat in the face of the odds that any people could preserve their existence and identity in the midst of so much suffering.

Other secular arguments include the high degree of education and literacy that characterized the Jews during the Middle Ages. This enabled them to more effectively preserve their traditions, and it increased their usefulness to society. Instead of living as beggars, they were able to become lawyers, doctors, bankers and bureaucrats.

Their high level of education also made it possible for them to be extremely mobile, enabling them to move more easily from one nation to another. They had financial resources, and they posed less of a welfare problem than non-Jewish migrants.12

Religious Theories
I’m sure all these elements were significant, but religious Jewish spokesmen have done much better with their explanation of Jewish survival. As one rabbi has put it: “The supernatural element of Jewish survival must be squarely faced.”13 Another rabbi has put it this way:14

If we wish to discover the essential elements making up the . . . unique strength [of the Jewish people], we must conclude that it is not its peculiar physical or intrinsic mental characteristics, nor its tongue, manners and customs . . . The only link which unites our scattered people throughout its dispersion, regardless of time, is Torah and mitzvot.

Torah and mitzvot — these two are the focus of Orthodox Jewish explanations of the preservation of the Jewish people. Torah refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures — the books written by Moses, often referred to as the Pentateuch. Mitzvot are the commandments contained in the Torah.

The rabbis contend that there are 613 mitzvot in the Torah.15 They view 248 of these commandments as positive in nature (“thou shalt”). The remaining total of 365 are considered to be negative (“thou shalt not”). All the commandments are viewed as essential for a person to be holy as God is holy (Leviticus 20:25).

The problem is that all the mitzvot must be interpreted as to their daily application, a process that results in endless discussions and disputes and often conflicting conclusions. An example would be the commandment against building a fire on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3). The commandment is clear enough. But, does flipping a light switch or pushing an elevator button constitute the striking of a fire?

Halacha
Over the centuries, the Jewish sages have developed an extensive code of oral laws that apply the mitzvot of the Torah to every aspect of daily life. This code is called Halacha.16 It is often referred to as “Jewish Law.” But a more literal translation would be “the way to behave” or “the way of walking.”

The observance of Halacha within the Diaspora during the 2,000 years since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 AD prevented the Jewish people from becoming assimilated into the cultures where they were dispersed. The practice of Halacha enabled them to keep their identity as a people set apart by God to be a witness to the world (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).

One rabbi has referred to observance of Halacha as “the tenacious adherence to our spiritual heritage.”17 He has further stated “We [the Jewish people] are who and what we are because of a momentous faith, a faith that proved stronger than the greatest empires in history.”18

Rabbi Akiva (50-137 AD), the great Jewish sage of the Second Century, resorted to the following illustration to explain why the Jewish people must reject assimilation at all costs:19

A fox was once walking by the bank of a river, and saw fish darting from place to place. “What are you fleeing from?” he asked the fish. “To escape the nets of the fisherman.” “In that case,” said the fox, “come and live on dry land together with me.” “Are you the one they describe as the cleverest of animals?” the fish replied. “You are not clever but foolish. If we are in danger here in the water, which is where we live, how much more so on dry land, where we are bound to die.”

Explaining the illustration, Rabbi Akiva stressed that the Torah is to Jewish survival as water is to a fish. Yes, the Jews are in constant danger, but if they put the Torah aside, they will lose their identity and die out as an identifiable people.

The Power of Memory
Another key element to keeping their identity which is often stressed in rabbinical writings is memory. Thus, all the Jewish feast days are reminders of either great events in Jewish history or promises of God about the future, or both.20

For example, the Feast of Passover points the Jewish memory back to the time when God miraculously delivered the Jews from Egyptian captivity. The Feast of Shavu’ot (known to Christians as the Feast of Pentecost) is a reminder of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The most joyous feast of the year is the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew) in the Fall of the year. It celebrates the completion of the fruit harvest, and it serves as a reminder of how God was faithful to the Jews during their wilderness wanderings when they lived in tabernacles. It is also a reminder that God has promised in His Word that one day He will come to the earth to tabernacle among His people (Zechariah 2:10-13).

The observance of the seven Jewish feasts each year — year after year — kept alive in Jewish hearts the memory of God’s call on their life as a nation. They were reminded of how God had come to their rescue time and time again (Psalm 78) and how He had promised that one day they would become the prime nation in the world, through whom all of God’s blessings would flow to the nations (Isaiah 2:1-4).

A Problem
The problem with these explanations of Jewish preservation is that they only show how the Jews kept their identity — and not how they were able to survive. As a matter of fact, the maintenance of their unique identity made them an object of hatred and an easy target for abuse.

The result was 2,000 years of unrelenting hatred, persecution and slaughter. Their own Scriptures prophesied that once they were scattered, they would be persecuted wherever they went and would become few in number:

And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where the LORD shall drive you. (Deuteronomy 4:27)

Then [after their scattering] you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you did not obey the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 28: 62)

Roman records indicate that 2,000 years ago there were between 8 to 10 million Jews living in the world.21 There are 14 million today. How many should there be?

Well, in the same period of time, the population of China grew from 30 million to over one billion.22 The Arab peoples came into existence at the same time as the Jews. Today there are more than 400 million Arabs.23 Based on these statistics, the Jewish population today should be between 400 and 500 million.

Back to the Basic Question
So, we find ourselves still grappling with the question we began with: “How did the Jews survive?” And there is really only one answer: “Supernaturally.” Psalm 124 sums it up best:

1) “Had it not been the LORD who was on our side,” let Israel now say,

2) “Had it not been the LORD who was on our side when men rose up against us,

3) Then they would have swallowed us alive, when their anger was kindled against us;

4) Then the waters would have engulfed us, the stream would have swept over our soul;

5) Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul.”

6) Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us to be torn by their teeth.

7) Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper; the snare is broken and we have escaped.

8) Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Although this passage probably speaks specifically about the survival of the Children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings under the leadership of Moses, it expresses an eternal principle concerning God’s relationship with the Jewish people. The author of Psalm 121 put it this way: “Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).

God’s Promise to Preserve His People
The Hebrew prophets were very precise about the fact that God would always preserve the Jewish people. Consider this symbolic prophecy of Isaiah who wrote 2,700 years ago, 700 years before the birth of Jesus (Isaiah 49:14-16):

14) But Zion [the Jewish people] said, “The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”

15) [God answers] “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

16) “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands . . .”

Speaking more specifically, Isaiah wrote these words about the preservation of the Jews (Isaiah 41:10-11):

10) “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

11) “Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.”

Likewise, the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote 75 years after Isaiah, declared that God would preserve the Jewish people (Jeremiah 30:11):

“For I am with you,” declares the LORD, “to save you; for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten you justly and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

A more graphic prophecy by Jeremiah concerning the preservation of the Jews can be found in Jeremiah 31:35-37 —

35) Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is His name:

36) “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.”

37) Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the LORD.

So, when will the Jewish people cease to exist? When the sun stops coming up and going down, when the seasons of the year cease to come, and only after all the heavens and the depths of the oceans have been explored. In short, the Jewish people are here to stay.

Do I need to inform you that these prophecies have been fulfilled? Despite their dispersion, their persecution and the murderous pogroms leading up to the Holocaust, 6.5 million Jews live in Israel today (slightly more than the number killed in the Holocaust), with another 7.5 million in other countries.

Now, you can understand why the continuing existence of the Jewish people is proof positive that there is a God and that the Bible is His Word.

This is a book review that I did not want to write. The reason is simple. Carl Gallups, the author, is a dear and valued friend, but I must honestly report that his latest book is a disaster.

I first became aware of Carl in 2012 when his first book was published. It was titled, The Magic Man in the Sky, which is the term Atheists often use to refer to the Christian concept of God. The book presented a brilliant defense of the existence of God and a scathing refutation of the fantasy of Evolution.

As soon as I finished reading the book, I immediately contacted Carl and invited him to appear on our television program, which he did. (Watch the interview.) I discovered that he had been a police detective for 20 years before deciding to enter ministry full time. He became the pastor of a Baptist church in Milton, Florida, located in the panhandle of the state, near Destin. He has served that church since 1987.

Before writing his first book, Carl had become known nationally through his radio program and his Internet video programs that focus on providing a biblical perspective on national and international events. He had developed a reputation as an articulate, outspoken and fearless prophetic voice due to his insightful commentaries about the decay of American society and our impending destruction by God.

His first book established him as a serious apologetics author who understands how to defend God’s Word. The book is “a must read” for any Christian.
Carl’s Second Book

His second book was equally good, but very different. It was titled, The Rabbi Who Found Messiah. It is an investigative journalistic type of book that exposed to the world the remarkable story of one of Israel’s most influential rabbis — Yitzhak Kaduri.

Before the rabbi died in January of 2006, he announced to his followers that the Messiah had appeared to him and revealed His identity. He said he had written down the Messiah’s name on a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope that was to be opened one year after his death. That was done in January of 2007, and the name the envelope contained produced a profound shock among Orthodox Jews. It was Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus! This revelation was dismissed as “dementia” and was quickly covered up by both the Orthodox and the Israeli press.

Carl’s excellent book brought the revelation back to light, and the book is being used very effectively in Israel today to witness Jesus to Orthodox Jews, some of whom have accepted Yeshua as their Lord and Savior. (Watch the interview.)
Carl’s Newest Book

This brings us to Carl’s third book, just recently published. It is titled,Final Warning: Understanding the Trumpet Days of Revelation (WND Books, 2015, 234 pages). The book carries an endorsement by Joel Richardson, the proponent of the very unbiblical idea that the Antichrist is going to be a Muslim. He states: “If you have a passion to study the subject of the end times, then you will love this book! Gallups is an engaging writer who presents a unique perspective. Prepare to be challenged.”

It is true that Carl is an “engaging writer, but it is not true that he presents “a unique perspective.” It is an unusual perspective, and from my viewpoint, it is completely off-the-wall, but it is not unique. That’s because it is an echo of the concepts of a very well known Bible prophecy teacher by the name of Irvin Baxter.

Basically, both of these men believe that we are currently living in the midst of the Trumpet Judgments of the book of Revelation! That’s right. They do not see these judgments as something future that will occur during the Tribulation. No, they claim the judgments are happening now.
A Lonely Interpretation

Until the publication of Carl’s book, I was not aware of anyone who agreed with Baxter’s interpretation of Revelation. In fact, Baxter has no links to any other prophecy ministries on his website because no one else agrees with him — until now.

Lone Ranger interpretations of this nature should always be suspect because the Bible specifically states that “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20). Here’s how Southern Baptist theologian Frank Stagg put it in his essay, “How to Understand the Bible” (1974): “God does not grant private disclosures that are withheld from other people.”

When you think about how unusual the interpretation of Revelation is that these men have come up with, you can understand why I consider it remarkable that throughout Carl’s new book, he repeatedly introduces each of his strange interpretations by proclaiming that “many” or “numerous” prophecy scholars agree with him!
The Third Trumpet

Carl begins his book by focusing on the third Trumpet Judgment because he says this was the first one that he realized had already been fulfilled in our day and time (chapter 15). It is the judgment recorded inRevelation 8:10-11. It reads as follows:

10) The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters.
11) The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.
Carl argues that this prophecy was fulfilled in the explosion of the Russian nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine on April 26, 1986 (chapter 15). His basic reason for making the connection between this event and the prophecy is the fact that Chernobyl means wormwood in the Ukrainian language (chapter 16).

To make the rest of the prophecy fit the event, Carl engages in some fanciful spiritualizations of Scripture. He explains away the reference to a star falling from heaven as a First Century man’s primitive explanation of a nuclear explosion (chapter 18).

To do this, Carl starts redefining words, a technique he uses throughout his book. So, according to Carl, the word, star, doesn’t really mean star — it is just something that looked like a star (pp. 124ff). And heaven doesn’t really mean heaven, it is just a reference to the sky. Also, the idea that a star falls from heaven is just a reference to debris from a nuclear explosion falling back to the ground (p. 126).

Further, Carl asserts that the statement that this event will result in one-third of the waters of the world being polluted must be interpreted as meaning simply “a calamity on a monumental scale” (pp. 116ff). That’s a very convenient interpretation, but it is not what the prophecy says.

Now, having come to the conclusion that the Chernobyl explosion was a fulfillment of the third Trumpet Judgment, Carl concludes that the first and second Trumpet Judgments must also have already occurred and must have done so before 1986.
The Second Trumpet

The second Trumpet Judgment, found in Revelation 8:8-9, reads as follows:

8) The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,
9) and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.
To give a contemporary interpretation to this prophecy, the first thing Carl does is to explain away the reference to the sea by saying, “Obviously, the sea in these verses is not a literal ocean of water but rather a vast expanse” (p. 129). “Obviously”? Really? Obvious to whom?

He then resorts to the redefinition of words, claiming that “thrown” should really be translated “arise” (p. 131).

Now, having changed the meaning of the prophecy, he proceeds to proclaim that it was fulfilled in 1945 with the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since Japan is an island nation, from a distance, the explosions must have looked like “a mountain of fire” rising from the sea (p. 131).

And, oh yes, the reference to one-third of the sea being affected is also explained away in a most peculiar way. It refers to either one-third of the population of Japan being killed in the explosions (including those who died over a five year period of time from radiation poisoning), or it refers to one-third of those involved in World War II being killed (pp. 132-133). But these particular verses do not speak of one-third of any group being killed. They talk about one-third of the sea becoming blood. And Carl never bothers to explain away the reference to the sea turning to blood.
The First Trumpet

This brings us to the first Trumpet Judgment. It is recorded in Revelation 8, verse 7:

The first [trumpet] sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

Carl proposes two possible modern day fulfillments of this prophecy. The first would be the “scorched earth” policy followed by the Russians in the defeat of the Nazi invasion of their nation during World War II (pp. 136ff). The second alternative, and the one Carl prefers, is that this verse is describing World War I (pp. 138ff).

Carl explains away the prophecy’s statement that the judgment will affect one-third of the earth by, once again, redefining words. The problem, he says, is that we are “relying solely upon the English translation” (p. 136). He then explains: “In actuality, the Greek word for earth in this passage allows for something much more local in nature.” So, as Carl puts it, the Apostle John, who wrote Revelation, “could easily have been speaking of a specific theater — that is, a specific region” (p. 136). Again, very convenient for Carl, but that is not what the text says.
The Fourth Trumpet

At this point in his book, Carl jumps to the fourth Trumpet Judgment inRevelation 8:12 which reads as follows:

The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
In his desperation to find a modern day fulfillment for this prophecy, Carl resorts to a 2004 article in the New York Times which reported that due to pollution, there was drop in the amount of sunshine reaching the earth by as much as 10 percent from the late 1950s to the early 1990s — or about 2 percent per decade (p. 141).

Carl calls this “global dimming,” and he jumps on the fact that in one place, Hong Kong, the loss of daylight amounted to 37 percent. Well, the prophecy does not speak of one place — it speaks of the impact on the whole world, and it also speaks of an immediate impact, not a gradual one over 40 years.
The Fifth Trumpet

The fifth Trumpet Judgment is a long one recorded in Revelation 9:1-11. To summarize it, the prophecy says that “a star from heaven” [identified as an angel] falls to earth with “the key to the abyss” [some translations read “bottomless pit”]. This is a reference to the place where rebellious angels are held (2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6). The angel opens the abyss and smoke comes out, together with a swarm of demons shaped like locusts who can sting like scorpions. They are allowed to torment all mankind for 5 months, except for those who have “the seal of God on their foreheads.” The locusts have a “king over them” who is described as an “angel of the abyss” whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon — both names meaning, “Destroyer.”

Incredibly, Carl tries to find the fulfillment of this prophecy in the Gulf War of 1990-1991 (chapter 22). The five months of torment is interpreted to refer to the five months that Iraq tormented the people of Kuwait before the United States launched its invasion. The abyss is redefined to mean a hole in the ground like a pit or a well, and thus Carl says the prophecy is really talking about the oil wells of Iraq! The smoke from the abyss is the burning of the oil wells. The locusts are helicopters. And the king called Abbadon or Apollyon is Saddam Hussein because his nick-name was “Destroyer.”

This whole interpretation was just beyond belief to me because the prophecy makes it clear that it is talking about a demonic invasion. And the idea that Saddam Hussein might be the Destroyer spoken about in the prophecy was particularly mystifying because the prophecy clearly states that the Destroyer is a demon who is released from the abyss.
The Sixth Trumpet

That brings us to the sixth Trumpet Judgment, and mercifully, Carl does not try to explain it away by linking it to some modern day event. Rather, he says its fulfillment is yet future (chapter 21). This is the judgment that says armies consisting of 200 million soldiers will be released who will proceed to kill “a third of mankind” (Revelation 9:13-19).

In speculating how this prophecy might be fulfilled, Carl states, “I am certainly not going to insist upon a rigorous interpretation of this sixth trumpet prophecy” (p. 169). Really? Why not?

He then proceeds to explain away the prophecy’s meaning by stating that it is most likely going to be fulfilled by a limited war in the Middle East in which one-third of the participants will be killed.

Unusual Interpretations

There are many other strange interpretations contained in Carl’s book. For example:

• The Seal Judgments (which precede the Trumpet Judgments) are not really judgments. They are just a general overview of what is going to happen — they are warnings, like those contained in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. The actual judgments do not start happening until the Trumpet Judgments which are all contained in the seventh Seal Judgment (pp. 77-79).
• The Two Witnesses (Revelation 11) who will prophesy in Jerusalem for three and a half years and then be killed by the Antichrist are identified as symbols of Messianic Jews and the Church (even though Messianic Jews are part of the Church). In other words, Carl denies the witnesses will be two men (chapter 13).
• The Rapture of the Church will take place when the Two Witnesses (all Jewish and Gentile believers) are caught up to Heaven (Revelation 11:11-12). This will happen before the pouring out of God’s wrath in the Bowl Judgments (Revelation 16). So, the Rapture will most likely take place in the middle of the Tribulation, following the blowing of the seventh trumpet in the series of Trumpet Judgments (chapter 29).
• The “abomination of desolation” (Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:15) which will be erected “in the holy place” is the current Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount (chapter 27) — despite the fact that the Bible clearly states that this abomination will be erected by the Antichrist.

The Basic Problem

There is a fundamental problem with Carl’s analysis that he never addresses, and it is the death knell to all that he proclaims. It is the fact that the book of Revelation pictures all its series of judgments — Seals, Trumpets and Bowls — as occurring within a 7 year period of time. This time period is precisely defined as 2,520 days (Revelation 11:3 and 12:6), or 7 years when considering that a prophetic year is 360 days.

The prophet Daniel says this 7 year period of time will begin when the Antichrist makes a treaty with Israel — most likely one that will allow the Jews to rebuild their temple (Daniel 9:27).

These 7 years are the final week of years of Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks of years (Daniel 9:24). This period of 490 years is the time during which God will accomplish all His purposes among the Jewish people (Daniel 9:24).

The first 483 years of this prophecy ended with the Crucifixion, at which time the Church was established and the Jews were set aside under discipline. We are now in the Church Age which represents a gap in Daniel’s prophecy. When the Church is taken out in the Rapture, God will once again focus on Israel as the centerpiece of His purposes. He will use the last 7 years of Daniel’s prophecy to bring the Jews to the end of themselves through the Tribulation judgments, at the end of which, the Jewish remnant will repent and receive Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10).

Conclusion

The Tribulation judgments — all of them — are pictured in the book of Revelation as occurring within Daniel’s 70th Week — a 7-year period of time. They do not begin before that time.

The judgments portrayed by the book of Revelation are all future. They will take place during the 7 years of the Tribulation. And they will happen as they are described. No one will have to redefine them or spiritualize them or explain them away. They mean what they say!

In conclusion, Carl’s latest book is an exercise in imagination that is going to confuse many people. Even worse, it is going to convince many that Bible prophecy does not mean what it says.