Damascus and Doomsday
Here we are at the end of November, 2016 and prophetic possibilities are popping all around us. Israel is in the process of –as usual– being pressured as part of trying to divide God’s land, meaning that Joel 3:2 is on the cusp of coming to pass. The “covenant made with death and hell” of Isaiah chapter 28 might not be far distant in the making.
Paul’s “perilous times” (2 Timothy 3:1-5) words describe American culture and society to a “T,” as they say. The “days of Noah” are here, with God’s message of repentance being mocked by rebels of a judgment-bound world. Debased human behavior like in the days of Lot proliferates, so that it now seems to be more the norm than the aberrant.
Many within the ranks of those who are antagonistic to or who ignore the God of Heaven seem to instinctively sense something ominous is brewing. Something isn’t right, and a visceral fear streams just beneath the surface of civility. The behavior of mankind–especially in America—demands correction of some sort, although neither the problem nor the correction can be discerned. A reprobate mind like that forewarned in Romans 1 prevents clear analysis in trying to understand the matters involved.
Ominous predictions like the prophecies of the long-dead French seer Nostradamus pique the interest of many every time his name is mentioned. In the minds of some, at least, a nebulous justice of some sort must demand a penalty for the base things infecting this generation. Guilt feelings fester in the collective consciousness to a degree.
Things going on in the Middle East trouble these who are unsure about the source and the reason for their uneasiness. Israel is most often given by mainstream press outlets as the number-one culprit in fomenting hostilities in that incendiary part of the world. However, the usually-pointed-at Israel doesn’t seem an underlying cause of things taking place in Syria, with the massacring of his fellow Syrians by dictator Bashar al-Assad.
There is good reason for fear of things developing in Damascus. It is a city of biblically prophetic import like only two others. Jerusalem is slated for both great turmoil and magnificent glorification, according to Bible prophecy. Babylon–whether the actual city within Iraq or whether figurative, as given in Revelation chapter 18–will suffer destruction as none other in history.
Damascus is prophetically scheduled for similar devastation. With all other signs of the return of Jesus Christ on the end-times horizon, the current developments in this, the oldest occupied city on the planet, is most relevant for those who are “watchmen on the wall.” The fate of the Syrian capital just might be nearly the top indicator of how near is the Rapture of the church.
The verse of great interest among those who watch for Christ’s return is, of course, the following: “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1).
According to the signals given in prophetic Scripture, the present generation of Earth dwellers looks to be in the last of the last days before the first phase of Christ’s Second Coming–the removal of all born-again believers from Planet Earth. This prophetic utterance by the prophet Isaiah has recently and dramatically arisen to prominence amid all of the other indicators pointing to the end of days. Damascus’ destruction fits somewhere within the general time frame of the very end of the age. Whether we have reached that parentheses in God’s prophetic program is the question, when considering news of the current tumult in Syria.
The Syrian dictator, President Bashar al-Assad, it is thought by some of the most in-the-know diplomatic types, senses that his time is about up. He will soon go the way of, at worst, Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi, and at best, Hosni Mubarak. Many of the “experts” believe al-Assad will choose to bring the entire Syrian people down with him rather than abdicate rulership or flee to escape his comeuppance.
The international community powers that be view warily al-Assad’s activities within his capital city and nation. Russia’s asserting itself within the affairs of Syria and the region greatly adds to the portentous uncertainties for the immediate future.
Al-Assad has certainly witnessed what happens to former tyrants in his part of the world in recent times. The question is not without merit. Might the Syrian dictator himself invoke his own “Samson option,” of sorts, and become the instrument of prophecy in making Damascus the “ruinous heap” it is destined to become?
Pre-Tribulation Pondering
Listening to the “experts” thinking aloud on what this election means is exercise in frustration, if not futility. The talking heads across the cable and broadcast spectrum attribute Donald Trump’s win to everything from the late FBI turn of events to news media’s biased poll-taking and misreading of exit polling. These throw in that those in charge of the losing campaign just didn’t understand the people of middle America. They didn’t see the people’s pent-up rage against the Washington establishment–the D.C. insiders.
All of these elements no doubt contributed to this election–as many of the pundits put it–eventuating in a totally unexpected outcome. But, it is the never-mentioned aspect of this election dynamic that is frustrating to me as a Christian. It is this that produces a sense of futility.
No one in media is talking about the 81% – 84% (depending upon the figure you accept) of “evangelicals” who turned out in this election. Christian participation just isn’t figured in at the highest levels of broadcast and cable punditry.
This means, to me, that the experts believe this election had nothing to do with our being fed up with the social debauchery and degradation that has been taking place, particularly over the past almost eight years. The homosexual, transsexual, same-sex marriage agenda, with mandated same-sex, multiple-occupancy public restrooms, had no influence on the voting this election year, the experts are saying with their silence. We, the voters–who are Christians and came out in numbers that have not been seen in many elections–apparently weren’t (according to the pundits) making a statement that we are fed up with our White House being bathed in rainbow colors emblematic of the homosexual lobby. We aren’t sick and tired of having the homosexual rainbow flag flown atop that same American presidential edifice, is the message of the pundits’ silence.
This electoral landslide against the candidate and party that have crammed down America’s throat all of this hellishness–mostly through presidential, executive order-fiat–had nothing to do with the social issues, I guess we are to take away from this silence.
That we are disgusted with small bakery owners being publicly humiliated and fined for refusing to bake same-sex wedding cakes obviously isn’t considered worth mentioning in the analysis of this election results. The absolute horrors and atrocities that we learned about involving Planned Parenthood and the selling of human baby body parts didn’t, in the thinking of the post-election, political analysts, figure in our collective voting statement.
It was all about terrorism, wallet issues, and building back America’s defense, while determining to “drain the swamp.”
These were all important issues in my own thinking, as in the thinking of many other Christians, while election day approached. But, in addition to stopping a further tearing down of America’s founding structure, I wanted–and continue to want–a government that will stop the anti-godliness, down the road of which the administration of the last eight years has deliberately moved this nation.
As expressed previously in these commentaries, it was God’s people praying the prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14 that turned this election so dramatically. This is the answer the pundits are seeking when they ask incessantly about what happened that the news media types missed. How could this election have turned out so differently than expected right up until 9 p.m. EST Tuesday, November 8?
The fact is that the throne room of Heaven was deluged day and night with God’s people imploring Him for mercy–asking that He hear from Heaven and answer our prayers. This, of course required repentance–not of America’s population, but of God’s people. It is more than obvious that He did hear and answered in a spectacular way. God cannot lie, and He promised He would answer such prayer–uttered under biblically prerequisite conditions.
Now, the question is: Will we who are called by His name continue to pray and to follow up on those prerequisite conditions? How we respond will determine how our nation–and our lives–fare over the coming days, months, and, perhaps, years.
We have proof that our Lord answers prayers in a spectacular way. The pundits will never see it, but we who did and are doing the praying certainly understand.
We can further understand God’s influence in this election by the truly Christian people He has placed among the soon-incoming power elite.
So, in this pre-Tribulation time, we have a window of opportunity to honor our Lord’s merciful answer in giving us a leadership that promises a return to founding principles. Along with that merciful action, it is also obvious that we have been given a course-correction, a return to the moral pathway–out of the depravity foisted on us in recent years.
We don’t have to wonder about how to honor His mercy and kindness in having answered our prayers. His number-one priority has always been and will always be the salvation of souls. We are expected to honor His decision to give America a reprieve–I have no doubt–in order to, first and foremost, lift Jesus Christ so that the Holy Spirit draws all to Christ for salvation.
Just beneath that all-important mission for God’s people in America is to let the pastors of our churches know that the true, Christ-believing bodies of worship should be devoted to teaching and preaching truth. That is, we are now, more than ever, to be the Philadelphian church and not the Laodicean church (read Revelation chapter 3).
There is no doubt that we see this gracious, merciful, moving of God’s hand in America. However, there are also signals that are growing stronger by the day that we are in times at the very end of the age.
Jesus forewarned in the Olivet Discourse that there would be great ethnic strife. We have been seeing it manifested in American cities. The seas and waves of humanity are “roaring” in America and in Europe. This election has intensified that roaring, I believe.
People who refuse to accept the election results are exemplifying the apostle Paul’s perilous times characteristic “incontinent”–or, “out of control.” Jesus said societal conditions will be exactly like now when He intervenes catastrophically into the affairs of mankind. That will happen with the Rapture.
With the United States now seeming to be headed back toward the America we once knew and loved, with the promises of the new administration, we can enjoy our moment of gratefulness this Thanksgiving season.
However, this time of national renewal is also likely to be a time like described by Jesus–a time that will bring His next catastrophic intervention into the affairs of mankind. That time might just be upon us.
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 24: 44)
Heaven’s Media, and You
This election year has made manifest the satanic nature of the mainstream media in America. The practitioners of supposed news gathering and dissemination have thrown off all pretense of unbiased journalistic endeavor in the news business.
We have just entered, I am convinced, a time long ago prophesied. We are about to witness an unstoppable, super-accelerated movement into the beginning of the darkest era of human history. Every signal points to America and the world gushing toward the establishment of the regime of the most despotic dictator who will ever rule on earth.
Adolf Hitler, during his rise to power, had his media, the most effective propaganda machine that had existed to that time. There has developed a similar although much more powerful media machine–worldwide—that has for months and years been preparing the way for the lawless one–the first beast of Revelation chapter 13.
Lies have been laid down as truth for so long and in such profusion that they are now accepted as fact by massive numbers of people. Billions throughout the world are increasingly eager to embrace any government–any leader–offering things that will take care of their needs with little to no effort on their own parts.
In the United States, the end-times media conglomerate has been profoundly successful in deluding the American populace. The tipping point has been reached, and sufficient numbers of such like mindset can now vote themselves largess from the public treasury–as Alexis de Tocqueville forewarned in 1835.
Although alternative media now disseminates news alongside deluding, mainstream media, the alternative news journalism is demonstrably inadequate to serve as antidote to the poison polluting the thought processes of the masses. And the alternative media are woefully inadequate to counteract the distortions and lies, because they, too, are steeped in thinking from the mind of the great deceiver–the father of lies.
Judgment is coming. Bible prophecy clearly lays out the fact that this rebellious world must and will be judged for its blasphemous, anti-God, Antichrist-spirit-filled rage. I believe that judgment is slated for sooner rather than later, according to the swift movement forward of global world order as mentioned above.
The Lord of Heaven never proceeds with His judgment and wrath before first issuing forewarning of His actions to come. The mainstream and alternative media of this nation and world report signs of the times, but not from God’s omniscient perspective. As mentioned, their perspectives are skewed by the fallen minds that are influenced heavily by the father of lies.
God will always forewarn of impending judgment. That’s why we are in business–the Lord’s business–of getting prophetic truth out in these closing hours of the Church Age. You are interested in learning truth about things to come, or else you wouldn’t be coming to this website on a regular basis. You see the power grab by the world’s elitists that is leading to America’s demise and the forming of a globalist order that is destined to be ultimately ruled by Antichrist.
That’s where you come into the picture in these absolutely crucial days just ahead. You are a fellow watchman on the wall. You believe and want to obey Jesus Christ, who said as recorded in Mark 13: 37: “What I say to one, I say unto all. Watch.”
We are thankful to have such brothers and sisters in Christ to help in serving as God’s heavenly media. The Lord has chosen this and other prophetic forums to be His “forewarning news service” in this, what must certainly be the very last days of this Age of Grace.
We have an awesome responsibility as we watch the satanic forces of this planet attempt to quench freedom’s light and enslave peoples everywhere. The Creator of all things views our mission in this regard as an eternally important matter. Ezekiel the prophet stated the gravity with which the Lord considers our duty in these troubling although exciting days: “But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand” (Ezekiel 33:6).
So, how do we “blow the trumpet”? By doing exactly what we are doing. We sound the warning of judgment and wrath to come, something the world’s media will never recognize, much less about which they will “blow the trumpet” of forewarning.
Thank you for being part of this all-important effort in our Lord’s Royal Service.
Heaven’s Post-Election Priorities
News pundits are pontificating in every direction about what President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s priorities will be come January 20, 2017.
We are told about building the wall on our southern border. There is much talk about repealing and replacing Obamacare. We hear about the new president’s intention to power up the faded U.S. military and to do away with many of the executive orders that he believes have helped bring the American economy and social structure to an unacceptable status.
The new president’s priorities are, of course, important. We welcome new direction as we sense reprieve from the God of Heaven this election has brought. The prayers of God’s people, as I’ve pointed out previously has, I believe, helped win that reprieve from what seemed impending judgment.
Perhaps correction would be the most appropriate term. God’s people prayed that God would hear from Heaven and would put the nation on a course correction.
This, He seemingly has done.
He intervened a century ago to make a profound course correction following the raucous Gay Nineties and the debauched era following World War I termed the Roaring Twenties.
Writer John Steinbeck captured this corrective era in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. And, it was indeed an era when the crops of corrective judgment, whose seeds of refusing to follow the God-designed course for America had been planted more than a decade earlier, came to fruition.
Again, the tremendous Dust Bowl of the 1930s, I’m convinced, was a corrective measure while God prepared the American people for the Second World War–a conflict God didn’t cause, but certainly used to temper and harden this nation to make it ready to meet its destiny.
That destiny was primarily to bring modern Israel to birth on May 14, 1948. Also, to spread the gospel to the world through advancing communications technologies. The United States was blessed, economically, from that point, making it the wealthiest and most technologically advanced nation that has ever existed.
So, while Mr. Trump’s political agenda is important, even critical, to achieving worthy, laudable goals in turning America in the right direction, Heaven’s priorities are truly the matters for which God’s reprieve have been so mercifully given.
Of course, the Church (all born-again believers) should take this reprieve as a mandate to recapture moral ground–to roll back some of the social evils the Obama administration has brought forth–most through executive fiat. It is that very Church which has, in my estimation, allowed this slide toward the moral abyss through her acquiescence.
However, that said, I am convinced that the same two major issues are involved in this God-given reprieve.
Heaven’s post-election priorities again involve 1) seeing to it that the gospel message is carried forth throughout the world; and 2) that the nation Israel continues to have the most powerful nation on the planet as an ally and protector.
It is beyond argument that God doesn’t need the United States to protect Israel. But, it is also beyond argument–to my way of thinking, at least–that the Lord has used America to act first as midwife in birthing Israel into modernity and then to act as guardian during decades since that rebirth. The Lord of Heaven has chosen America for this specific function, it is likely, for as long as the planet remains in the pre-Tribulation era.
There will come a time when Israel will be under the wrathful hand of Antichrist and the rest of the world. God will intervene directly at that time. Daniel the prophet, passing along the angel’s words, puts it this way:
“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” (Dan 12: 1)
So, while we watch the unfolding of post-election aftermath, let us view things through the prism of Bible prophecy. We are not about to go into an era that offers prospect of the Church building Heaven on earth as the Kingdom-Now purveyors would have it. All is further stage-setting for the Rapture of the Church and the appearance of the son of perdition .
But, it is a reprieve from Heaven we are witnessing and living, so let’s keep in mind Heaven’s priorities.
The Great Commission is still the top priority. Bringing as many lost people as possible into God’s family before the time of Tribulation is our post-election mandate.
Restrainer at Work
In presenting this week’s commentary, I must be careful to preface my thoughts. This is to make clear that I fully realize that the nation of which I am a citizen has no special, private, import, or status within God’s prophetic dealing with mankind, so far as its people being a restraint against the influence of evil is concerned. I can say only that I believe America is, very likely, the nation in which the highest number of Christians reside.
By “Christians,” I mean people who are “born again” in the sense of the words Jesus spoke on the matter of salvation as recorded in John 3:3-7. As a matter of fact, the United States has descended from being the most Christ-centered to, perhaps, the most base nation on the planet, in terms of exportation of the world’s entertainment filth. With the constitutionally legalized murder of more than 4,000 babies in the womb per day, we have spit in the face of the Almighty, telling Him that His love for the human race means nothing in view of expediency in the matter of lust for pleasure.
That established–that America is no longer the shining city on the hill to be admired–the United States still possesses the residual vestiges of greatness. The nation retains, I believe, remnants of the Christian ethic sufficient to be an influence in these closing days of the Age of Grace.
What I am saying–at least it is my intention to say–is that the born again within this nation do, indeed, have a special and private duty to perform in these times that look to be very near the first phase of Christ’s Second Coming. Because of American Christians and their position within present history as the Church Age closes, I’m convinced that we can examine a specific prophetic section of God’s Word and receive insight as to precisely where we stand as a generation on Heaven’s prophetic timeline. That specific prophetic section is found in the following verses:
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8)
The reference “he who now letteth” in this passage is to God, the Holy Spirit–the third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, Paul is prophesying, has been and is acting as restrainer of evil in the present world. God, the Holy Spirit, will continue to restrain the end-times evil until God removes from acting as the restraining influence during this Church-Age dispensation.
We who believe in the pretribulation, premillennial view of Bible prophecy hold that the Holy Spirit indwells each born again (saved) person during this Age of Grace (Church Age). Christians are thus known, collectively, as the church. The church, indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, is the Body of Christ, individually and corporately. It is this body of believers who act as salt and light for a world of corruptive evil that would otherwise bring about total decay, causing every area of human existence to implode.
The Holy Spirit will, therefore, the above prophecy informs, live within and exert influence through believers in Jesus Christ until the moment God no longer acts as restrainer of this world’s evil. This truth provides the answer to the question that is being asked prolifically in one form or another: When will all of the evil that is threatening America and the world bring civilization crashing down?
Some of that evil that looms threateningly over our daily lives brings worried glances from even the most ardent skeptics of Bible prophecy. An economic storm of unprecedented magnitude hangs angrily above America, with national debt that just turned $20 trillion as the Democrat Party–chief among contributors to the fiscal madness asks us once again to put its ultra-liberal candidate into the presidency.— (The Republican Party, it must be said, contributed mightily to the staggering debt load as well.)
It amazes even the global gurus of finance as to why the world isn’t already crushed by the impending economic crash. Iran’s leadership tells Israeli leaders practically every day that they intend to wipe the Jewish state from the face of the earth. They do little to hide the fact that they are in the process of bringing into reality nuclear weapons that can make their destructive wishes a fait accompli.
With such an avowed, blood-thirsty enemy, missiles trained on Israel and, some believe, on the very brink of producing atomic weaponry, it astonishes many observers that the Israeli Defense Force hasn’t already risked initiating all-out war by destroying Iran’s nuclear production facilities.
Absolute evil pervades every strata of society. The days like those of Sodom and of the antediluvian times of Noah inflict debauchery and violence that only a decade ago would have seemed far distant. Islam is allowed to usurp, in some cases, the U.S. Constitution, favoring Sharia Law in order to show tolerance. At the same time, Christianity is pushed to the margins of society and held up as intolerant by the tolerance police–through the insane institutions many of the federal courts have become.
Yet, the world holds together, while seeming to be on the very cusp of “Implosion,” as the title of Joel Rosenberg’s book would have it.
The Restrainer is at work. I believe that’s the answer to why the implosion has not happened, bringing total devastation to this judgment-bound earth. When the Restrainer removes and the church is called to be with Christ, I’m convinced the impending horrors that have for so long engendered the questions about the end will fall instantly upon a Christ-rejecting world.
Are you Rapture Ready?
Which Way America?
July 4, 1976 brought the bicentennial celebration of America’s birth. The nation was, at that time, like in most every era of modern U.S. history, facing challenges at home and abroad. The Soviet Union was at full strength and threatening to exert hegemony over territory even beyond the post-World War II nations it had dominated for more than three decades. China threatened its neighbors and the world. Our nation was considered to be in moral decline even then, having come out of the hippie generation and the sexual revolution and drug culture produced from the time before and since Woodstock in 1969. Roe v. Wade had just been instituted by the Supreme Court decision and all looked to be on the fast track to degeneration into a moral abyss.
The pastors and evangelists of the time were preaching from the pulpits against the many debaucheries going on. There was pushback against the evils of the day that seemed to permeate every stratum of society and culture.
My own memory of the time is wrapped up into a single recollection. Our pastor at the time, who was an eloquent speaker—and a died-in-the-wool patriot—brought into our sanctuary sermons that rang with passion for restoration of the founding fathers’ Judeo-Christian based principles. Dr. Russell J. Clearman also wrote a book, whose poignant title I chose for heading this commentary as we emerge into the post-election light—”Which Way America?”
Dr. Clearman’s book was, like his spoken words from the pulpit, a moving clarion call, through the question implicit in the title, for America to choose which way it would move. Would the nation choose to continue the road that would lead to oblivion, or the road that would return to a Godly course?
Our nation went into severe economic recession shortly after that 200th birthday celebration, the Jimmy Carter years bringing fiscal distress and disrespect from nation-entities around the world. Iran turned from being an ally to, after overthrowing the Shaw, holding hostage Americans in the American embassy in Tehran.
Then, with God’s people’s appeal to Heaven through movements such as the Moral Majority, with much prayer, the nation went into an era of relative peace and prosperity.
But, alas, America has again determined to walked down that descending slope of anti-Godliness, toward its doom.
Today, with the election of 2016 just concluded, God has again answered prayers for national rescue. And, make no mistake, it was the God of Heaven—listening to His people—who answered prayer and saw to the outcome of this election.
This is, of course, a foolish assessment by those who haven’t spiritual discernment, but is true, none-the-less.
Just as was the 1976 celebration of America’s birthday, this election of the 45th president of the United States seems a place to ask the question, “Which Way America?”
The nation is much deeper in its descent into the abyss of anti-Godliness than it was during the 1970s. Back then, homosexuality still had a moral leash. Public restrooms being shared by both sexes simultaneously was unthinkable. Same sex marriage condoned and institutionalized by the U.S. Government was unacceptable. Christians being forced to serve customers whose demands went against the business owners’ Christian principles was unimaginable.
We, as a people in America, have a much sharper turnaround to accomplish than during that earlier era. The effort will require more resolve this time. The spiritual battle is much more intense and will become even more profound as we proceed into the next 4 years of this new presidential administration.
Which way we choose to go will depend directly upon God’s people becoming staunchly resolute. –In how devoted we are to Heaven’s directives in our prayer closets and on the frontline of these satanically spawned battles we face in this end of the age war.
With all that said, I sense a very possible prophetic scenario developing, which I share here with the caveat that it is only a scenario, not a “word of knowledge,” as some would claim.
We have coming into the office of president on January 20, 2017, a person who has a certain degree of business genius. I have no doubt of that, having observed him over many decades of his empire building.
He is God’s man for this troubled hour in this nation and world, I have absolutely no doubt. I say “God’s man,” not in the sense that he is devoted to Godliness. I mean by this that I believe he is appointed to this prophetic hour for God’s own purposes. There are profound things afoot.
Globalism has been put briefly in the pause position upon the engine of world dynamics. The president-elect is a nationalist—one who holds firmly to national borders—to national sovereignty. He has vowed to “Make America Great Again.”
Whereas, I certainly don’t know the future in its detailed unfolding, I can, based upon studied, scripturally-based exploration, speculate and postulate just a bit about things to come.
We now have one of history’s proven, great builders in the business world about to take the reins of power in the United States of America—the most materially-blessed nation of human history. We have in Revelation chapter 18, a description of the most powerful and materially dominant entities in all human history. “Which Way America?”
I know this flies in the face of traditional, seminary teachings, but might we be witnessing the beginning of the final development of this entity that will eventuate in becoming the mystery Babylon described in that most astounding prophecy?
This is not to imply that Donald J. Trump—or anyone else—is a satanic plant. I’ve been a “Trumper” all the way, since he won nomination.
However, God lifts kings (leaders) to power and He brings them down. Could this genius builder be about to help build a national entity that is destined to fulfill a specific prophecy? We can only stay tuned—and spiritually attuned.
But, we won’t see the final product, in any event, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. There is an even greater event—that destruction of Babylon event scheduled for the tribulation era. We are looking for our blessed hope (Titus 2:13).
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Life and Death Voting Issues
This time of year always reminds me of the issues of life and death. My dad died near this date in 1992. My pain from His passing from this life, while diminished over the twenty-four years since, continues to evoke a sense of emptiness–a void that nothing can fill.
Jesus, while on earth in the flesh, the Bible tells us, experienced in His Spirit every human emotion that involves suffering. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Where death of a loved one is concerned, we can be assured our pain is understood by God Himself, because Jesus wept over the death of His friend Lazarus (John 11:33-35). Life and death, then, constitute an issue very close to the heart of the Creator of all things, the Heavenly Father.
More than any other matters involved in the issues of this presidential election, I believe it was life and death that were most important to consider in exercising not just our right, but our duty, to vote. I believe with all that is within me that America’s slide toward national oblivion began in earnest with the imposition of abortion as a legally sanctioned death-style by the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Since that time, a holocaust of immense magnitude has brought the deaths– I believe the murder— of 58 million human beings in the wombs of their mothers. Abortion is the nucleus of the national sin around which this all-important issue involving life and death revolves.
However, the gravity created by many corollary aspects within life and death as an issue also contributes to sucking the American soul ever more deeply into the quicksand of decay. As a result, the removal of the protective hand of Almighty God from our nation can, I believe, be easily observed taking place on a daily basis.
Sociologists who compile such statistical information report that America has a homosexual population of no more than 5 percent. Yet, the gay agenda has overtaken American society and culture as if gays constitute the 95 percent majority of our population, instead of the other way around. Since the days of the Moral Majority’s efforts to stem the tide of national immorality, there has been so little such organized opposition to the roughshod overrunning of America’s social structure as to make opposition virtually nonexistent.
These two issues, abortion and homosexuality, represent ways diametrically opposed to life. They are devoted to death. They are directly devoted to rebellion against the Giver of life.
Abortion is outright murder of the innocent (the shedding of innocent blood, as God’s Word puts it [Proverbs 6:16-19]). Homosexuality, when carried to its ultimate outcome, means the elimination of human life from the earth. Rebellion against the God who created us–manifest most egregiously in our culture through these two great sins–is the cause for all of the other problems resident within the issues that so trouble us, individually and governmentally. Whether talking about the sins of fornication and adultery within our heterosexual numbers or any other anti-God transgression one can list, rebellion–doing what is right in our own eyes—festers at the heart of humanity’s death wish. And, a death wish fallen man indeed has, because there is no sign of let-up in the march down the broad way to perdition.
Rebellion brings loss of common sense at some point. It produces a reprobate mind (Romans 1:26-27), the scripture informs. We are witnessing the insanity in handling the problems that are proliferating, thus the meltdown of social, economic, and all other elements within human affairs in these troubling times. We face, as a nation and as a world, certain destruction because of our refusal to follow the prescription for life offered by God’s love letter to mankind–the Bible.
“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). The moral issues, then, most directly affect our lives, according to God’s own Word. Of course, in thinking upon this presidential election, I realize that those lost in rebellion-transgression can never recognize that the moral issues are most directly relevant to our well-being as a nation.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Sadly, tragically, much of God’s own family–born-again people—have become so blinded to the lies fed them by the social architects and engineers who say man can build heaven on earth that most missed what truly matters as they approached the voting booths this November.
I will not be so arrogant as to scold the readers of this commentary for whom they voted in this presidential election or for any other office in this or any election. But, I will suggest that you think carefully in hindsight on what your candidate claimed was his or her position, according to party platforms and/or stated positions on these matters that are so close to the very heart of our God.
America has always presented voters with choices on the issues that affect our quality of life. The founding fathers saturated their writings with Judaeo-Christian principles while formulating this great experiment in liberty. They intended for “we the people” to stand upon solid moral ground. Christians should seek that solid ground in this election just past and in every election, even when faced with having to vote in many cases for and against spiritually fallen individuals as candidates.
Although eroded and under constant assault, our process still produces Judaeo-Christian options that offer the quality of life–i.e., options that are not in opposition to biblical principles. Such was the case in this election. We can be assured that we will be held accountable for the options we choose when we–and I believe it could be soon— stand before Christ at the judgment seat.
Prayer Wars
Never in American history has there been in presidential politics a time that more fits within the descriptive given in Ephesians 6:12 than the time we are currently experiencing. That spiritual battle describes succinctly, in my opinion, the time that has led up to Tuesday, November 8, 2016.
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ”
For decades it has been as if the dark, hellish forces of the ages have been turned loose against this nation, which has been so openly blessed by Heaven. The cultural and social “progress” thought to have been made, according to those who want to detach America from the Judeo-Christian mooring the founding fathers provided, are threatened by a significant challenge. We the people of God just might have decided we don’t wish that progressive agenda to proceed further. Thus, the war is on in a way perhaps unseen in the annals of U.S. presidential elections.
We as God’s people are told how to fight such warfare as that which we are presently engaged. We are to “put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11).
The Bible provides a description of that spiritual armor with which we are supposed to adorn ourselves in order to wage war against this most powerful and wicked enemy force. Once we are fully, spiritually armed, we are told we are to be “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
How well most Christians these days have fully armored up is in question. The dumbing-down by the godlessness of the secular world and–even more troubling–by the compromising churches of recent times, has taken a heavy toll. However, the one weapon mentioned in the apostle Paul’s spiritual battle preparation of Ephesians chapter 6 is in play during this war for the survival of this once-great republic.
I am believing that the core of the people in this nation who hold to the truth of the Word of God–the Bible– are “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” that the Lord will intervene in this war that is raging. It is a “prayer war” to be sure.
I’m aware of the seminary and other positions that say 2 Chronicles 7: 14 was only for Israel and doesn’t apply to America. But, the God of Heaven does not change. Jesus Christ, who is God, is the same yesterday, today and forever, the Scripture tells us. I am trusting, therefore, that that great promise given to Israel during their direst time of need applies equally to those of this day and time who are “called by His name.”
Although the nucleus of God’s people who hold fast to the Heavenly Father’s precepts and promises might be a dwindling number, we are still here in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. We are engaged in this Prayer War for a restoration of sanity in America’s government, society, and culture.
We are praying specifically that the evil forces that are raging to make this nation into a state totally apart from all godliness will be, at least on an interim basis, kept from their luciferian goal. I say “on an interim basis” because Bible prophecy plainly foretells that the satanic, globalist forces will for a time one day achieve establishment of a one-world order as Antichrist’s platform of power. It will happen. It’s just a matter of time.
Meantime, however, while the Church of Jesus Christ is here, thus the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit) resident within that Body holding back evil, it is right and proper–and I believe expected–that God’s people, called by His name, are to pray the prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Millions, I’m convinced, are even at this late hour just before this presidential election praying this prayer to the best of our ability. I believe movements and revelations of corruption within the political processes of late reflect directly the Lord’s attentiveness to the genuine prayers of His spiritually attuned prayer warriors.
If America is to be so blessed by a positive answer to those prayers by Heaven’s throne room, I believe it will mean that the battle like that described in Ephesians chapter 6 will, after the election, intensify even more than if God’s answer is otherwise. And, it will, in that case, be this nation’s final dispensation of liberty, if there is not a turning back to God in a major way.
Very shortly after this commentary is posted, we will know God’s answer to those prayers–and, perhaps the nation’s disposition with regard to personal liberty for whatever time is left in this Age of Grace.
The war of the ages as this Church Age dispensation moves into its final stages will be fought most effectively by God’s people in the prayer closets of America. Let’s be sure to put on the whole armor before engaging in the battles we face.
Olivet Overview – Part 4 – By Ed Wood
The next event on our Olivet list concerns signs which will appear in the skies above. There are a whole host of possibilities in this category ranging from local phenomena, local meaning confined to Earth’s atmosphere, or exotic, which would cover everything else beyond. Quite literally, the sky is the limit, as we will now see.
Signs in the heavens (Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-25; 21:11, 25-26)
Though one can speculate almost endlessly about what these signs might include, the Bible does have some specific ones which we can explore, in no particular order from the book of Revelation next.
Revelation {6:12-14} And I beheld when he* had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. *The Lamb – Jesus
Though earthquakes generally don’t generally affect the appearance of the sky by themselves, there can be a tie-in between them and volcanic activity. As we have all seen, volcanoes can eject huge plumes of material into the atmosphere, blackening the sky totally in their worst extremes, to lesser effects such as reddening the light of the sun, moon, and stars. The sixth seal apparently produces both during the judgment released by its opening. There is, at least for a time, a complete obscuring of the sun. It is safe to assume that whatever the cause, it is probably severe enough to affect the entire planet since we are told “every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” Beyond the untold immediate havoc such an event would cause, its long-term effects such as the negative impact on crops due to lack of sunlight, acid rain produced by the introduction of sulfurous gases into the atmosphere, and damage to the Earth’s ozone layer are also distinct possibilities.
This catastrophic event is attended by falling stars, perhaps the fiery re-entry of rocks and material initially blasted upward by earthquake-activated volcanoes and the rolling up of heaven, which might represent the mushroom clouds of volcanic plumes rising high into the sky. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus also mentions the specific signs of the sun and moon being darkened and the falling stars, as well as increased quake activity. Yet these profound and distressing changes in the skies are not limited to only seismic or volcanic events as we see next:
Revelation {8:7-9} The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were, a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
It has only been within the past two centuries or so that the idea of rocks falling from the sky (unless an active volcano was nearby) were seriously entertained. The heavens were pretty much considered perfect. Where could rocks possibly originate out there anyway? The age of modern science has, of course, shown us that there are plenty of places for them to come, the asteroid belt and wandering comets being the two leading contributors. The various meteor showers which appear regularly during the year are from the latter, the random small and big meteors come from the asteroid belt which exists between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The sizes of those from the belt can range from specks to those the size of dwarf planets. Luckily for Earth, the planet-sized ones are in stable orbits. Not so for the rest because our planet bears the scars of city-sized ones that have stuck over geologic time and caused some very severe damage and pronounced effects on our climate and the life that existed at the time. Further evidence of huge past collisions are plainly visible on the moon’s surface which does not have the benefit of an atmosphere to burn up small meteors or to produce the weathering Earth possesses to erase the craters of meteoric impacts. (I do believe in an old universe and an old Earth because the Bible itself allows for a day to be other than twenty four hours long – see Joshua 10:12-14; 2 Kings 20:8-11; Psalm 90:4; and 2 Peter 3:8. Furthermore, the national atomic clock which is precise in its timekeeping ability is routinely readjusted to account for variations in Earth rotation.) Here in the phenomenon of rocks falling from heaven we have but one example of information being revealed in the Bible well ahead of its time of general acceptance.
Now we know large meteors the size of mountains are common in our solar system even though they rarely strike our planet over the course of time civilization has existed. If it were to happen now all the conditions described in the Revelation passage above would be the result. We can be also assured that a third of everything living on Earth is going to be badly affected – not to mention the ruin of a third of the world’s shipping capacity. Beyond the immediate effects of a calamity of this magnitude, try to imagine the long-term consequences on our environment and world economy.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, it might actually be the trigger for what happens next on our battered planet and its desperate survivors:
Revelation {8:10-12} And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood*: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
According to an impeccable source (Terry James!), the term “wormwood” when rendered in the Ukrainian language becomes “chornobyl.” And yes, the Ukraine is the site of the disastrous nuclear reactor meltdown in 1986. The immediate area is still uninhabitable having been contaminated with nuclear fallout.
I bring this up because of what I believe is a direct connection between the Revelation account and the nature of the radioactive accident at Chernobyl. To do this, let’s take a look at little bit of nuclear science. In the realm of nuclear reactions we have two basic types – fission and fusion. Fission involves the breakdown of heavy elements into lighter ones; fusion the combining of lighter elements into heavy ones. The common element to both is that in each process an extremely tiny amount of mass is lost. But the term “lost” isn’t entirely true either, but rather “converted” into energy according to Albert Einstein’s famous formula: E = mc² where m = mass, c = the velocity of light, and E = energy. In each of the above cases, you take how much mass you lost in the nuclear transformation, multiply it be the velocity of light times itself (an enormous number, by the way) and that’ll give you how much energy you will get. Without getting too technical, suffice it to say that a little bit of mass makes a whole lot of energy. This is why the generation of electricity by use of fission reactors has proven so appealing, despite the inherent drawbacks of the fission process, namely the possibility of serious accidents with decades-long consequences and the problem of dealing with spent fuel rods which still remain lethally radioactive for millennia.
Unfortunately this same principle is also the basis of atomic (fission) and thermonuclear (fusion) bombs and this brings us to the connection I mentioned in the last paragraph. We note above: “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp.” Every star you see in the night sky, and the great bright one you see during the day, is also powered by nuclear fusion. The reaction starts out with plain hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, and finally ends up with helium, the second most abundant element. The same process powers a thermonuclear bomb, which, by the way, uses a fission device as a detonator in order to create the high temperatures needed to initiate the fusion reaction. So, when John reveals this “star” falling and burning from heaven, I think the choice of words was a deliberate attempt by the Lord to reveal exactly what was coming and only now in the nuclear age would a generation come that could properly understand it. I don’t know about you, but I got chills when I first made this observation. The rest of the passage describes a situation that looks very much like the aftereffects of a nuclear strike: contaminated water with “many men” dying as a result, and smoke and particulates emitted into the atmosphere with their attendant dulling effect on the light from celestial bodies.
In fact, decades ago scientists by observing the effects of a planet-wide dust storms on Mars from the Viking program noticed a precipitous drop in surface temperature and postulated that a nuclear exchange could by the smoke coming from fires and material lofted into the air could produce the same kind of chilling effect on Earth. With that, the term “nuclear winter” came into our lives. Personally, I do not see this in our future because if a large scale nuclear exchange were to take place, civilization, and probably most life as we know it, would rapidly come to an end. Though Revelation reveals that Earth will be severely damaged and a large percent of the population killed off, there will still be enough people left to provide the 200 million troops which will gather in the valley of Esdraelon, the site of the Armageddon conflict in Satan’s last effort to impose his own version of the “final solution” upon the Jews. To transport such a huge number of troops will no doubt require a high level of sophisticated technology to still exist as well. After all, if the world was blasted back into the Stone Age, how could that be accomplished?
We must also not rule out direct supernatural intervention when it comes to things falling from the sky:
Revelation {8:3-5} And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [it] with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, [which came] with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast [it] into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
Final Thoughts
At this point, it is important to realize that all the bad things that have always been a part of life on Earth are merely the shadows cast upon it by something going on that Paul was keenly aware of in his own time:
Ephesians {6:12} For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
When one considers the rapid advance of evil now under way on Planet Earth, the barrier between us and the spiritual realm will very likely be greatly attenuated and the war between God and Satan will be there for all to see, even if most of the remaining population still remains clueless as to what is going on, its collective mind clouded by the Antichrist (the “Even him” reference below):
2 Thessalonians {2:9-12} Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Next time, we’ll explore the very end of the seven year Tribulation and give some thoughts as to what happens during the thousand year Millennial Age and the Eternal Age which will follow it.
Terry James Prophecy Line 