The Third Stage
Although the Antichrist will have all his allied forces
with him when he receives the news that his capital city has
been destroyed, he does not move eastward to destroy his
enemies because Satan will control the movements of the
Antichrist Therefore, the destruction of Jerusalem will be
uppermost in his mind. So instead of moving east, the
Antichrist will move south against Jerusalem. This is the
third stage of “the war of the great day of God, the
Almighty,” Zechariah describes this third stage in Zechariah
12:1-3 and 14:1-2. Once again, Jerusalem will fall into
Gentile hands, and half of the Jewish population taken into
slavery while the other half will remain in the city to
await a later fate.
The capture of Jerusalem by the forces of the Antichrist
will not come easily. Zechariah 12:3 states that all the
nations that come against Jerusalem will be sorely wounded,
and Jerusalem will become truly burdensome to them. This
battle for Jerusalem is also described in Micah 4:11-5:1.
The Fourth Stage
The main concentration of Jews and Jewish leaders will no
longer be in Jerusalem or in Israel, but in Bozrah, in the
land of Edom or present-day southern Jordan, the armies of
the world will move southward from Jerusalem to Bozrah
(Jeremiah 49:13-14).
The Fifth Stage
With the armies of the Antichrist at the city of Bozrah, the
“the war of the great day of God, the Almighty” will begin
its last three days (Hosea 6:1-3). This passage is actually
a continuation of Hosea chapter 5. The chapter division is
unfortunate, because it breaks the train of thought. This
passage contains the acknowledgment of the sin demanded in
Hosea 5:15. The confession of Israel’s national sin will
last for the first two days. In this confession, they admit
that the nation had looked upon Jesus as nothing more than
another man, a criminal who had died for His own sins.
However, on this occasion they recognize that He was no
ordinary man, but the perfect Lamb of God, the Messiah
Himself. Furthermore, it was not for His own sins that
Messiah died, but for theirs, so that they need not be
stricken for their sin. On the third of the last three days,
the nation as a nation will be saved, fulfilling the
prophecy of Romans 11:25-27.
Another prophecy of this event is in Joel 2:28-32.
Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, and here the
nation of Israel will be regenerated because of the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on them, creating some
dramatic manifestations in their midst (Joel 2:28-29). This
will be accompanied by wonders in the heavens as well (Joel
2: 30-31).
In the process of Israel’s regeneration and new prophetic
manifestations, the false prophets who have led Israel
astray during the course of the Tribulation will be executed
(Zechariah 13:2-6). Often the parents of the false prophets
will themselves be the ones to carry out the execution
(Zechariah 13:2-3). Though many of these false prophets will
attempt to hide the fact that they were formerly prophets,
the scars on their bodies, a symbol of their prophetic
office, will betray them for what they were. Their denials
will not be able to save them (Zechariah 13:4-6). Isaiah
64:1-12 also describes the pleading for the Second Coming of
the Messiah.
