The transcript below is taken from two places in Voddie Baucham’s sermon “The Battle of Armageddon?” (Grace Family Baptist Church, June 23, 2013, Revelation 16:12-16, series “Revelation 6-16”), the first block running from 6:23 to about 7:25 and the second from about 29:45 to 31:51, both at https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/625132035572

The overwhelming majority in the Christian world not only hold to these views, but condemn others who don’t. This is huge, folks. This is a big deal. To not be a dispensational Zionist, and to not believe that the current nation-state of Israel is God’s centerpiece as it relates to end-time prophecy, is, for many people, completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, for many people, because of dispensational Zionism, everything Israel does is right, and we must support them in everything that they do.

Here’s the other problem with that. This idea limits our ability to examine and measure ourselves. See, here’s what’s interesting. I can be as much of an enemy of God as anyone else, worshiping at the altar of the beast and this world system, and at the same time hold on to this idea that this world system has to accept Israel as a geopolitical entity so that I’m not on the wrong side of the war. If it’s only about being on the side of Israel in geopolitical matters, they can do things that are ungodly. And by supporting those things that are ungodly, I’m an enemy of God. But because I have reduced this idea to just supporting a geopolitical nation, I’ve completely missed the point.

This is true spiritual warfare. That’s the great irony. If we’re not careful, and we’re watching the newspaper, and we’re watching what happens in the Middle East and trying to figure out what’s going on with Syria, what’s going on with Iraq, what’s going on with China, what’s going on with Russia, what’s going on with Saudi Arabia, what’s going on with Egypt, what’s going on with fill in the blank. And while we’re looking at it, this war is going on right under our noses. Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

That’s our war, and that’s this war. “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). That’s where this war is. Never mind that we out-Sodom-and-Gomorrah Sodom and Gomorrah. What matters is, when those armies come across the Euphrates, we are going to send troops and stand with Israel. And therefore God will overlook us out-Sodom-and-Gomorrah-ing Sodom and Gomorrah, because we fight on the right side of the Battle of Armageddon. God help us if that’s the way we think.