Rules of the End Game

The countdown to Armageddon, according to some Bible prognosticators, began in 1948 with the establishment of modern Israel. Interpreting a passage in Matthew’s gospel, forecasters say that the generation that sees Israel restored will also see the end of time and Christ’s return on the clouds.

But nobody agrees how long a generation is. Author Hal Lindsey’s reading was 40 years, placing doomsday sometime around 1988. Others say 20 to 100 years, which could push Armageddon back to 2048. To confuse things further, a few interpreters claim the countdown didn’t begin until 1967, when Israel recaptured Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.

In any case, Armageddon won’t occur until several other prophecies also are fulfilled:

* The Roman Empire returns in the form of a 10-nation confederacy of European and Mediterranean nations run by a charismatic leader known as the Antichrist. The 12-member European Common Market is widely regarded as the precursor to such a confederacy. As for the Antichrist, author Tim LaHaye says the meteoric, if brief, rise of Ross Perot demonstrates the public’s desire for a “dynamic, Superman-type” leader.

* An army from the far north (interpreted until recently as the former Soviet Union) invades Israel, but God intervenes and destroys the attackers with such fury that it takes months just to bury the dead. Critics say Bible passages that prognosticators link to Russia actually refer to Turkey.

* The Antichrist reneges on a seven-year treaty to protect Israel and, like Hitler, tries to exterminate the Jews.

* The planet is wracked by earthquakes, wars, weird weather, pestilence and other disasters.

* At some point--interpreters disagree when--Christians are mysteriously removed from the Earth in an event called the Rapture. The removal occurs so suddenly that it leaves driverless cars careening down freeways.

Professor Craig Blaising of Dallas Theological Seminary says the Rapture will occur before any of the other end-time events, making unsound all attempts to match present-day happenings with biblical prophecies.

Even the establishment of Israel offers no clue that the end is at hand, he says: “There’s just no way to know.”