Jesus tells us not to be alarmed
When we see the imminence of war, it is natural to be afraid that the world is going to destroy itself through war. Jesus knew this would happen and warned us against being afraid.
(Mat 24:6 NIV) You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
Does the Bible describe the last World War?
The Bible describes the final world war in the last book of the Bible – The Revelation.
(Rev 16:13-14 NIV) Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. {14} They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
(Rev 16:17-21 NIV) The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” {18} Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. {19} The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. {20} Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. {21} From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
The last time the world goes to war will be when the armies of the world are gathered in defiance against God. They will suffer the judgment of God and be defeated.
What happens to believers in the last days?
Even before this great destruction and many more described in the Book of Revelation, Christians will be raptured (caught up into heaven) and rescued. Christians will not have to go through these sufferings.
This event called the Rapture is described by Paul.
(1 Th 4:16-17 NIV) For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. {17} After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
How do we know that the Rapture occurs before all the suffering?
There are 19 occurrences of the word “church” in Revelation chapters 1 to 3 alone. Yet when the book starts to talk about the sufferings in the Tribulation Period, there is not one occurrence of the word “church”. The most logical explanation would be that the Rapture had already occurred.
For example, compare the two passages, one pre-Rapture and one post-Rapture.
(Rev 3:22 NIV) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
This statement is repeated seven times in only the first three chapters of Revelation. But when the Rapture has started, the statement changed to…
(Rev 13:9 NIV) He who has an ear, let him hear.
Testing prophesy
We will be receiving more and more prophecies that speak of the world being destroyed by war. The Bible tells us what to do when we receive prophecies of any nature. We should first have it discerned by church people with the prophetic gift themselves.
(1 Cor 14:29 NIV) Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.