Re: the 7 years leading up to the 2nd Coming. There evidently is not peace on the earth before the 70th week starts or there wouldn’t be a need for a 7 year peace treaty with Israel. Then, when Revelation 6 starts there is turmoil with the four horsemen. Granted, it gets much worse in the second half but it does not sound to me like there is peace before or during the 70th week. My question is how does the below verse fit when there isn’t peace occurring in the world? In I Thess. 5:3 “When they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them and they shall not escape.”
Do you think there must be a there a short bit of time with a reprieve of peace between the signing of the treaty and the 1st horseman coming on the world scene?
I believe there will be two short periods of peace in the Middle East during the run up to the end times judgments. The first will follow the battle foretold in Psalm 83. After Israel wins this battle all the countries who share a border with Israel will have been defeated. This will eliminate Israel’s most pressing security problems and give them a brief time to become a “peaceful and unsuspecting people living without gates or walls as Ezekiel 38:11 requires before Magog and the Moslem coalition can attack.
Then the battle of Ezekiel 38 will come where God delivers a decisive victory against Israel’s detached but far stronger enemies. Following that battle the anti-Christ will come as a peacemaker to enforce a seven year covenant, and the world will again believe peace has come. I believe this is the time Paul was describing in 1 Thes. 5:3. Suddenly the end times judgments will begin and peace will be gone until the Lord returns.
By the way, I believe the anti-Christ is the first horseman. Daniel 8:25 says he will deceive many by means of peace. It’s the second horseman who takes peace from the earth (Rev. 6:4).