There is growing worry that the Trump administration’s move to cut funding for various Palestinian causes formerly provided by previous administrations might incite uprisings. This, while talk of a soon-to-come peace plan proposal by the administration grows among the several interlocutors within the process.
Prophecy Line
Stage-setting for Prophetic Protest
In thinking on what is going on to Jerusalem’s north, with Israel’s primary enemy, Iran, coalescing with Russia and other nations, I was looking through some of the documents in my computer. I wanted to get some sense of developments in prophetic stage-setting regarding Ezekiel 38-39. I’m referring, of course, to the Gog-Magog assault predicted for “the latter days.”
I found some quotes by some prophecy observers, their names with which you will be familiar. Two of these well-known men are now with the Lord, and the third has probably one of the most-watched television programs at the present time.
Hal Lindsey is the man, of course, who has a weekly TV program. He continues to analyze and present matters involving prophetic stage-setting all these years later after writing the foundational book on current issues and events in light of Bible prophecy–The Late, Great, Planet Earth, published in 1970.
I found in my documents surprisingly up-to-date forewarnings of things to come. Some might even call Lindsey’s words prescient in their analysis. I must admit that I’ve not thought too highly of the briefing service known as DEBKA-Net-Weekly Briefing over the years. I’ve found the information this service dispenses prone to be hyperbolic, that is, greatly exaggerated in many instances. However, Hal Lindsey’s own intelligence briefing from some years ago shows the source as having value I missed.
Hal wrote:
For students of Bible prophecy, even the title of this communiqué should set off alarm sirens. I just received some electrifying intelligence data – first, from the DEBKA-Net-Weekly briefing, and second, from some personal intelligence sources (which I carefully guard) that confirm Debka’s report.
Russia, Iran and Syria have entered a defense pact that is in the process of altering the balance of power in the entire Middle East. Russia’s part in the pact has been kept relatively secret for a long time. But the facts reveal a long, steady Russian commitment to the Iranian nuclear program and arms supply to Syria. (“Russian-Syrian-Iranian Axis” by Hal Lindsey, September 2006, Personal Update News Journal)
That information, presented in 2006, has proven to be extremely accurate. We have watched this relationship between the key Gog-Magog players blossom into the next major diplomatic crisis.
President Trump has said that Iran will not develop a nuclear capability, and Iran has declared that it will destroy both Israel and America.
Russia’s government, under a Gog-like leader, Vladimir Putin, has declared it will consider an attack on Iran as a most serious violation of Russia’s own interests in the region. So, the tension builds.
Two prophetic factors, when brought into the mix of unfolding history, present interesting questions, some of which we’ve considered previously.
1) The Gog-Magog attack on Israel as given in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 indicates a most basic, conventional, not nuclear attack. Question: What happened to Iran’s nuclear program presently under development and so hotly contested?
2) The nations of the presently powerful Western alliance, according to the Ezekiel prophecy, do nothing to try to stop the Russian-Iranian and coalition partners attack against the small Jewish state when it occurs. Why is this so?
Certainly there appears to be no president of the unwavering mindset like that of Mr. Trump on the scene.
The other prophecy experts I mentioned had the following observations, as I discovered when delving into my computer documents.
Chuck Missler:
God apparently sends ‘fire’ down, not only upon Magog and his allies, but on some distant people living in the ‘isles’ or ‘coastlands.’ Who are they who dwell carelessly [securely} in the Isles? The word for isles could be an idiom for remote continents. Could this be an allusion to the United States? Is the ‘fire on Magog’-and these others-a result of a nuclear exchange? (2)
Grant R. Jeffrey:
When Russia is defeated by God’s miraculous power, the newly united European Union will emerge as the greatest economic, political, and military power on the planet. These pivotal events will set the stage for the rise of the new European super state
and the emergence of the new leader who will ultimately assume the role of the Antichrist, the final world dictator who will rule the planet during the last seven years leading to the climatic battle of Armageddon. (Duck, Daymond R., and Richards, Larry Ph.D, God’s Word for the Biblically-Inept Series, Starburst Publishers. 2000. p 89)
The possibilities exist, based upon the prophecy by Ezekiel, that nuclear “fire” will fall upon, perhaps, the nations of the western alliance, while the attack on Israel is taking place. The destruction of the Gog-Magog forces (all but one-sixth completely destroyed) would create a power vacuum for Antichrist.
My own thought is that the one who will be Antichrist will know and believe the Ezekiel prophecy. He will perhaps be content to watch these forces be destroyed, knowing that the world will be “easy pickins’” after the Russian threat is gone. But, we know that tidings out of the east will soon add to his worries (kings of the east).
It is all fascinating to consider as we watch these things shape in rapid fashion toward the climax of the age.
Now, we look at the latest addition to matters involving that future attack from the hordes to Israel’s north.
The prophecy is most interesting in light of the news item that follows it below.
Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” (Ezk. 38:13)
The head of NATO said the alliance would not aid Israel in the event of an attack by Iran, according to reports.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general, told the German magazine Der Spiegel that because Israel is not a member of NATO, its “security guarantee” doesn’t apply to the country, according to the Associated Press.
NATO is also not involved in conflicts in the Middle East or peace efforts there, Stoltenberg added.(“NATO Chief: No Assistance for Israel if Iran Attacks,” by Melissa Quinn, Associated Press, June 02, 2018)
It looks as if the international community is already setting up for the mere diplomatic protest that will be issued when the much-hated Israel is assaulted.
But, the God of Heaven–and of Israel–will have the last word.
Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. (Ezekiel 39:1-4)
Rethinking Babylon the Great
The hour is late, according to practically every biblically prophetic indicator. Most every geographic region, and in many cases specific nations, are coming into sharper focus in lining up for prophetic fulfillment.
The Gog-Magog coalition (Russia, Iran, Turkey, etc.), China as king of the kings of the east, and, of course, Israel, all stand poised as if on some strange starting line. These are like tense athletes ready to launch into full competition, yet they stand at that starting line, with tremendous tension building, as if awaiting the starter’s pistol to fire. When it fires, it will be a deadly competition that will end at Armageddon.
That seven-year course of murderous interaction leading up to the finish line seems as near as the next major crisis. The Tribulation could begin at any time, it seems. Only the lack of a peace agreement with Israel at its center stands as somewhat of a time constraint, preventing Daniel’s seventieth week from initiating.
All of that said, it is more than just odd that end-times Babylon of Revelation 18 is nowhere to be seen. Babylon–the ancient place in Iraq where the great city once stood–is there, of course, but, rather than being built as we thought when Saddam Hussein began a small restoration project on the site, it, in fact, has been threatened by the likes of ISIS and other disruptive forces. Those forces have already destroyed much of the antiquities near the site, with no apparent resistant force to stop them.
It could be, of course, that the fulfillment of the final prophecies involving this region is far off yet. However, the Lord, I’m convinced, is telling those who are paying attention that all of these things are on the very cusp of fulfillment, not somewhere in the distant future.
There must be a land (nation) and a city of unprecedented power, influence, and opulence on the scene by the end of that prophesied seven years to wrap up history prior to Christ’s Second Advent.
I’ve read Mark Hitchcock’s book on the topic, as well as a number of other books on the subject of the city known as Babylon the Great. Most have it that the city will be quickly built with modern building methodologies and equipment. This, to me, is becoming less likely every day.
Yet that nation and city must be there before Christ’s return, as given in Revelation chapter 18 and other places. There is nothing “spiritual” about the prophecy. The land and the city will be “literally” destroyed in an hour, the prophecy says. To me it is doubtful that building such a city of great opulence and influence could be accomplished during the Tribulation–as the tremendous geophysical destruction from God’s judgment and wrath, it seems logical, will make such construction prohibitive.
The one factor that is a big unknown is the amount of time that will elapse between the Rapture of the church and the signing of the covenant that will initiate the seven years of Tribulation. If this is an extensive period of years, it is possible, perhaps, for a city such as given in Revelation chapter 18 to be constructed. Still, logic dictates that it would take a very long period to have the merchants of the earth grow rich from the delicacies that Babylon the great will offer.
I think it is time to reconsider whether it has been America the whole time that this prophecy references.
Despite every economic and other problem that has been thrown at America–even with the Obama presidency, the most destructive (purposefully, I’m convinced) in its history–America stands far above the rest, $20.5 trillion deficit and all. Like the earlier prophecy says about that ancient city and land (Jeremiah 51:7), America has been a “golden cup” in the hand of God–i.e., this nation has seen to it that the gospel has been disseminated to the world. It has served as midwife in the rebirth of Israel into modernity, and has acted as its earthly protector (realizing, of course, that God, Himself, is its ultimate protector).
Sadly, however, America has also become–like that doomed land and city–the most sinful in all of mankind’s history. Like it or not, the United States fits the model, and there seems no such other that has even the most remote chance of one day fitting the model, if we are talking about a relatively near-term fulfillment of the prophecy in which Babylon the Great is involved.
Let us think a bit more about this nation that alone fits the description of the region in which resides Babylon the Great. The United States stands at the center of the world, whether the other nation-states of the planet acknowledge or deny the fact. America is the envy of the world community for the materialistic good she possesses and produces, thus giving her great wealth and great power. It seems the globalist elitists of that world community are determined to do incrementally what they can’t do any other way short of all-out nuclear war, in which there can be no winners. They want what America has. They want the wealth redistributed, to create for themselves a power base of working class to support their needs to establish a worldwide humanist empire.
Does this sound like the ravings of a conspiracy nut? Maybe so. But if it’s a conspiracy theory, my rave is biblically based. It is not a conspiracy, in my view, of a group of world leaders from around the globe who seek to create a world order dictatorship. I’m of the opinion that most of these people believe they have altruistic intentions. They sincerely believe, for the most part, that building such a world, totally controlled by the globalist-elite thinking they can provide, is the way to world peace and prosperity.
However, the real maestro in this plan to create the new world order we heard the first President Bush talk so much about is none other than the greatest of all deceivers–the father of lies. His moving through the minds of men to build a world apart from God is not without precedent. We see that influence in the following:
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 1:1-4)
This account of civilization that developed in due time following the great Flood reflects the fallen mind of mankind. It is a mindset that has not changed over the many thousands of years since. It is an early attempt at one world order, without consideration for God the Creator’s input in determining the governance of culture and society.
The Bible records God’s dealing with that early rebellion of the globalist-elites’ attempt to establish their humanistic kingdom:
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:5-9)
The Creator dealt with these one-worlders by confounding their language. He erected instant language barriers between the people working on the tower of Babel and other projects in the area so that they couldn’t complete the projects. God then supernaturally scattered the people who had become as one culture into the whole world.
The God of Heaven is on the brink of again intervening into the murderous affairs of rebellious mankind. The destruction of Babylon the Great, like the destruction of the Tower of Babel, will lead to the end of man’s attempt to usurp the throne of God. But, this time it will be a fix that will install the Prince of Peace on His earthly throne.
I know I’ll be in trouble with the seminary types, but, based upon evidence in view and Scripture, I have to be open minded to the possibility that we are living in that mysterious place whose chief, doomed, city is called Babylon the Great. One thing sure: We shall see, perhaps sooner rather than later. I find the following most interesting, upon considering Revelation 4:1. (And, keep in mind, the book of Revelation is not strictly chronological in its presentation. The call might refer to a time considerably earlier than this city’s destruction.)
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18: 4-5)
Elam Prophecy in View?
Israel, always in the news while planet earth closes in on Christ’s Second Coming, again is drawn into the center of stage-setting for prophetic fulfillment. I’m referring specifically to prophecy involving ancient Persia–modern Iran.
We’ve looked at the prophecies involving these end-times players over the past number of years. Dynamics generated from things going on in the region have increased in intensity as of late. It is therefore worthwhile to catch up with developments involving Israel and its biblically foretold enemies.
Iranian leaders are angered over the Trump administration’s taking the U.S. out of the “nuclear deal.” They are threatening the Jewish state and vowing that soon Israel will feel their wrath.
Development of nuclear weaponry is at the heart of the threat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump have both vowed that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. However, it is known that they already possess missiles thought to be capable of carrying nuclear payloads. And, their centrifuges and nuclear laboratories, deeply ensconced within Iran’s mountainous regions, are beyond inspection by the people who came up with the “worst deal in history,” according to President Trump.
A primary reason Trump considered the “deal” as such is because the inspectors could neither “trust” nor “verify,” as President Ronald Reagan insisted in the case of dealing with the Iranian’s chief ally, Russia.
A Jerusalem Post article reports Israel’s present mindset.
Netanyahu said he spoke over the weekend with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and expressed Israel’s appreciation for the strong and determined position the US administration is taking against the Iranian nuclear agreement and the Islamic Republic’s aggression in the region.
“The regime in Tehran is the main factor undermining stability in the Middle East,” he said. “The campaign against its aggression is not over, and we are still in it.”
Netanyahu said that Israel is working against the Iranian regime on three fronts: preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons, working against its military entrenchment in Syria, and working against the transfer of game-changing weapons from Syria to Lebanon, or the manufacturer of that weaponry in Lebanon.
“Those weapons are intended for use against Israel, and it is our right – by virtue of the right of self defense – to prevent its production or transfer,” he said. (Netanyahu says campaign against Iran ongoing on three different fronts, by Herb Keinon, Israel News – Jerusalem Post, May 27, 2018)
As mentioned, we have previously, and on several occasions, covered the threat to Israel from its prophesied enemy, Persia (Iran). That nuclear threat hasn’t gone away since we last paid attention in one of these commentaries. It has, as a matter of fact, progressed toward becoming not just a threat, but, possibly a real assault. The former U.S. presidential administration aided and abetted that ratcheting-up of Iran’s eventual achievement in producing atomic weapons. Israel’s military posture as of late, combined with Netanyahu’s elevated words of concern, illustrate, I think, just how near might be some action to neutralize Iran’s growing danger to not only the Jewish state, but to other nations as well.
I wrote the following in a commentary on June 14, 2014:
My friend, Bill Salus, has just released an especially fascinating book relative to our time. NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN IN IRAN: The Ancient Prophecy of Elam points to a particular prophecy in the book of Jeremiah that the author believes foretells a devastating blow to a certain part of Iran–the area of ancient Elam.
One of my own burning questions has been: Why does Persia (modern-day Iran) seemingly intend to attack Israel alongside Russia in the Gog-Magog attack of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 without apparent deployment of nuclear weaponry? –Thus, since Iran is obviously developing such weapons as fast as it can.
That prophecy that both Bill and I had and still have in mind is the following:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them: And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the Lord. But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 49:35-39)
The title of Bill’s book–NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN IN IRAN: The Ancient Prophecy of Elam–might itself prove to be prophetic, as things wind up for the end of the age.
Rebels with a Cause
Unlike the teenagers of the movie Rebel without a Cause (starring James Dean), who didn’t know why they were rebels, there is a growing population among this generation that are rebels with a cause. That cause is an ancient one, led by the most hate-filled of all rebels. The cause is twofold: hatred for mankind in general and for the Jewish race in particular.
Satan, the original rebel, determined that he had no equal. He could not abide the Creator bringing into existence a creature that would share his (Lucifer’s) importance in the eyes of God. Iniquity was found in him, and he determined that he, himself, was equal in glory and magnificence to the Creator, thus was as powerful and would magnify himself and put himself above the throne of God. Isaiah the prophet tells the story.
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14 13-14)
This rebel has had as chief among his causes to destroy the creature that he saw as his rival for preeminence. Once cast from Heaven, he entered the garden of Eden and set about to do just that. Our history books are replete with a record that traces the old serpent’s trail. He has observably inflicted great damage, as is witnessed by our daily news headlines. He has had no problem enlisting in his cause a large number of those who share in his rebellious hatreds for anything and everything that the God of Heaven has set in place.
We, each and every hour, see his influence and his recruits’ acquiescence to and embracing of Satan’s hatred for all things godly. Without reservation, I include in his army of rebels those who rage against anyone who opposes the inflicting of homosexuality on our society and culture. I include anyone who believes it is preferable to murder babies in the womb so that life can be more convenient for those who don’t want the babies–only the carnal pleasure involved in procreating them.
Homosexuality and abortion each bring to the war against humanity the insidiously clever methodologies Satan employs in conducting the battles that he and his army wage daily. In each “cause”–homosexuality and abortion–the destruction of human life and prevention of human life through the perversion of sodomy are presented as nothing more or less as the right of the individual to choose what is right in his or her own eyes. Who is this God that He should interfere with man’s business?
Part of the cause Satan has inspired his army of rebels to push in the war on mankind involves the whole matter of population control. Abortion and homosexuality aren’t doing away with mankind quickly enough. Here again, the evil genius of the master manipulator–Lucifer the fallen one–is seen at work. Mankind must be taken off the planet so life can be better and survivable.
Officials within the UN are pushing the notion that the human population should be reduced in order to effectively combat climate change. The long standing notion was continually pushed by Christiana Figueres, the past Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). In 2013, Figueres had a conversation…regarding “fertility rates in population,” as a contributor to climate change. (UN Climate Change Official Says “We Should Make Every Effort” To Depopulate The Planet, Rapture Ready News, 4/8/15)
The other major assault in Satan’s never-ceasing war against God and mankind is inspiring hatred against the Jewish race. This hatred is an easily traceable anger that began in Eden.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)
This, of course, is when God promised that He would send a Savior to redeem fallen man from sin. Satan and his schemes to oppose God at every turn and exalt himself to position above the God of Heaven, according to this promise, would be thwarted by this person who would eventually be born into God’s creation called man. This happened when Jesus was born through the virgin birth to a young girl from the house of Israel. The Jewish people were chosen to bring the Christ into the world.
Satan hates all of mankind, but his hatred has been, throughout the ages, particularly focused on the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel). This is just as the prophet Zechariah foretold, as recorded in Zechariah 12:1-3: Hatred is becoming more violent the closer we get to the wrap-up of this dispensation (the Age of Grace).
This rebellious spirit against Israel, through whom the Savior was born, leaps at the observer more and more often through incidents such as reported in the following newstory a number of years ago.
They were dressed in their team’s colors and chanting passionately and excitedly–the only problem was they weren’t in the stadium cheering on their team. Bosnian soccer fans who were in Vienna, Austria on Friday for a match between Austria and Bosnia-Herzegovina changed “Kill the Jews” alongside pro-Palestinian demonstrators in central Stephanplatz square before heading to the game. It was a frightening spectacle that proved anti-Semitism is still a jarring reality in Europe.
At first they stood calmly and shouted “Free Palestine” back and forth. Then, one can hear a single voice among the protestors shout out “Kill the Jews.” The calls to violence swelled as the other protestors joined. In a swarm of rage, they began to jump up and down shouting “Ubij, ubij Zidove,” which means “Kill, kill the Jews.” (Chilling: Bosnian Soccer Fans Join ‘Kill the Jews’ Chant in Vienna, The Guardian, Courtney O’Brien, Townhall.com)
The army of rebels is growing, and so is the scope and virulence of their cause–to fulfill Satan’s end-times assault on Israel and, incidentally, on true Christians.
Careful, Mr. President
But, the peace deal is far from a done deal. The following news excerpt frames the obstacles.
Yet any Palestinian willingness to even consider the plan would require conditions to improve and anger to subside considerably in the coming weeks, an unlikely scenario as the Palestinians say evidence of one-sided Trump giveaways to Israel continues to pile up. US allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf also have felt compelled to criticize the administration for its approach. Ostensibly, Trump would need buy-in from those same countries to build enough momentum for any peace plan to succeed. (“US Readies Mideast Peace Plan Rollout Next Month, but Threatens Palestinian Aid,” by Matt Lee, Times of Israel, 5/20/18)
Sources say that the Trump administration will release the peace proposal following the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Reportedly, a number of US officials tell that the administration will likely release the peace plan in mid to late June. However, the timeline for release is subject to conditions in the regions at the time.
Word has it nonetheless that the primary authors of the plan, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner and special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt, have already begun unveiling the plan to key people involved in the process.
It is said that there is a great furor growing over details of the plan because there is in the offing significant cuts to funding Palestinian programs. This, of course, is something Donald Trump promised even during the run for the presidency in 2016. He, like many of us, sees only foolishness in continuing to throw taxpayers hard-earned dollars at those blood vowed to exterminate our chief ally in the region, the nation Israel.
Added to the threat of withdrawing considerable amounts of American dollars from the Palestinian cause is the move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This has caused the controllers of the Palestinian militants to incite rioting. Israel, in defending against assault after assault, is universally condemned by the international community. Always, the American media–news and otherwise–show the film and still photos of the relatively few rioters who are killed or wounded. Always the mainstream newshounds take the side of those who do their best to inflict damage to Israeli men and women simply defending Israeli borders.
Hatred, worldwide, for the Jewish state–for Jewish people in general–is ratcheting up.
While Europe, despite increases in rapes, killings, and other crimes by Muslim immigrants, continues to pamper and coddle those who have invaded their borders, those European leaders castigate Israeli leadership for simply defending Israel’s borders against such hostile invaders. It seems to me that this is a form of insanity going on in Europe today. Perhaps it is an insanity of the sort that will one day welcome the prince that shall come…
All of this enragement is certainly something the president of the United States should be wary of–of which he should be cognizant. But this is not the purpose of this commentary’s title: “Careful, Mr. President.”
The reason for the caution in the title of this essay is directed at the so-called peace effort itself. Any president–any leader–involved in the peace process that has as its center the nation Israel should be fully informed of the dangers posed. The very heart and mind of the Creator of everything is focused on this one issue being toyed with in the Middle East at this moment. Anyone on the wrong side of this issue holds his own fate as well as the fate of the world in his hand. The God of Heaven is uncompromising in His holy view of the peace of Jerusalem.
There is only One who can bring that peace. His Name is Jesus.
Those who try to force the peace, God’s prophetic Word says, will be responsible for Armageddon itself.
“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” (Joel 3: 1-2)
So: Careful, Mr. President. Don’t concern yourself with the possible hostilities that will break out by supporting God’s chosen nation. Be concerned about being party to forcing that nation to give up land for peace in order to achieve a peace that Isaiah the prophet termed “a covenant made with death and hell” (Isaiah 28: 15, 18).
Good Advice for Israel–Sort of…
We remember how Vice President Dan Quayle was raked over the coals by mainstream media types who delighted in going on incessantly about each and every verbal gaffe he made. Actually, Quayle was an attractive young man who spoke well and was quite accomplished in life, serving, of course, as senator from Indiana before joining the first Bush-Quayle campaign.
But, he is forever stigmatized as the guy who couldn’t spell potato. For that and other insignificant verbal stumbles, he was assaulted in the press and through entertainment shows day after day.
The same thing was done earlier to Gerald Ford, who was Richard Nixon’s vice president, then president when Nixon resigned. The mainstream news and entertainment venues made fun of Ford at every opportunity–like when he tripped exiting an airplane and was caught by a Secret Service agent or someone. Another time, he hit a golf ball off the tee and it went awry and hit someone among the onlookers.
Chevy Chase of Saturday Night Live launched his comedy career mimicking Ford and his supposed clumsiness during those years. In actuality, Ford was, in his younger years, a superb athlete, starring at the University of Michigan in football.
With Barack Obama’s V.P., we had a vice president who made gaffes that made Quayle look like Shakespeare and Ford look like Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Russian ballet star. But, the media hounds, because Joseph Biden is of the same untouchable political ideology as they, said nothing more than, “Well…that’s just Joe…” It’s much like they saw him as an eccentric, old uncle who amused them, but nothing about which to get political.
During his time in office, Mr. Biden weighed in on the nation of Israel, and his advice to Jews and their place in the world was…well…classic Old Joe… The following news item at the time tells the story.
Vice President Joe Biden told a gathering of prominent American Jewish officials last fall that they should look to Israel – and not the United States – as the ultimate guarantor of their community’s long-term safety.
The surprising remarks, which were made during a Rosh Hashana celebration attended by government officials and members of Congress, were reported by Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in a recent article about the future of European Jewry.
“I had the great pleasure of knowing every prime minister since Golda Meir, when I was a young man in the Senate, and I’ll never forget talking to her in her office with her assistant – a guy named Rabin – about the Six-Day War,” he said. “The end of the meeting, we get up and walk out, the doors are open, and … the press is taking photos … She looked straight ahead and said, ‘Senator, don’t look so sad … Don’t worry. We Jews have a secret weapon.’ ”
Then Biden recalled asking Meir what the secret weapon was.
“I thought she was going to tell me something about a nuclear program,” Biden said. “She looked straight ahead and she said, ‘We have no place else to go. We have no place else to go.’ ”
“Folks, there is no place else to go, and you understand that in your bones. You understand in your bones that no matter how hospitable, no matter how consequential, no matter how engaged, no matter how deeply involved you are in the United States … there’s only one guarantee. There is really only one absolute guarantee, and that’s the state of Israel. And so I just want to assure you, for all the talk, and I know sometimes [President Barack Obama] gets beat up a little bit, but I guarantee you: he shares the exact same commitment to the security of Israel.” (“Biden Told US Jews that Israel – Not America – Guaranteed Their Security,” Jerusalem Post, By JPOST.COM STAFF, March 30, 2015)
If a politician–or anyone else of notoriety from another ideological mindset–had said something about, for example, African-Americans and their ties to the continent of Africa, hinting that they should just go back there, I’ll just leave it to the imagination what would happen to that person.
But, it was Joe Biden who said it, talking about the pariah state, Israel, so there’s nothing to see, here.
Biden knew Barack Obama’s feelings about Israel. The president’s attitude was made transparently clear to all of us, as his administration’s hash tag at the time had it. He obviously was determined to completely change American policy toward the Jewish state. Biden was being disingenuous in part of his remarks when he advised those Jews at the gathering on Rosh Hashana that they should think about going to Israel–one supposes, in order to avoid some sort of coming trouble. His disingenuousness, however, did not include his advice that Jews think about leaving.
We remember the late journalist, Helen Thomas, who, in a moment of senility, said the Jews should “get the h*** back to the nations they came from.” This is a mindset that today pervades media and many within the deep state that bedevil the Donald J. Trump Administration. They, unlike old Joe and Ms. Thomas, just haven’t come to the point they can no longer govern verbalization of their dislike for Israel.
Actually, the advice to think on going to Israel to those of the House of Israel is prophetic in its import. There is coming a time when hatred for the Jews of the world will be greater than any previous time in history. Read Jeremiah 30: 7, for example.
Jesus, Himself, said it would be a time worse than any that has ever been, or would be again. He was speaking primarily of the time of Tribulation as it would be for Israel. Read Matthew 24: 21.
We see that hatred building today across America and the world.
Advice Old Joe Biden gave totally misses the mark, as any well-grounded Bible prophecy student will understand. Israel–as all of mankind–should not put our reliance for safety in security provided by the nations of the world. God is our only place of safety and refuge.
“Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).
Prophetic Proof
We know we are at the end of the dispensation of grace for specific reasons. A number of these come to mind.
Evil men and seducers are growing worse, as the Apostle Paul forewarned. The time has come when “they”–meaning religionists who claim to know Christ but do not–will not “endure sound doctrine.”
All of Paul’s “perilous times” prophecies are in view, as we have dissected many times. False accusers, for example, are in our daily headlines, with lies being told for political gain or just to heap hatred upon ideological enemies.
There is a denial that God should be found anywhere in humanistic governance. As stated many times, here, Psalm 2 is in play as never before. The international community, i.e., the UN and those within every other such globalist forum, want to “break the bands asunder” that bind the human race to any form of godly mooring.
We know these are the last days because there are scoffers that say in mocking derision: “Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep all things are as they were from the beginning?”
In addition to all the above, proof that we are in prophesied times of the end occurred Monday, May 14. Israel reached what many Bible prophecy observers view as the span of a generation–70 years since its refounding into modernity. This, many believe, is the gist of the prophecy the Lord gave while expounding on things to come atop the Mount of Olives.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:32-35)
Israel is generally considered the prime signal of where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. That strange nation has reached its 70th birthday so far as its modern incarnation is concerned. A generation is defined by God’s Word as 70 years in one specific instance. Therefore, Jesus, who is the Word, giving this Olivet Prophecy about the fig tree–often the symbol for Israel–makes the modern nation’s 70th anniversary living proof to many that the end of the age is upon this generation.
I term Israel ”strange” because of the fact that it is like no other in human history. Having been completely destroyed as a nation, its people dispersed into all the world and its language dissolved, yet it is now back in its God-given land. It has its native language again–Hebrew–and is the center of worldwide attention.
As I often remind, no matter which way the cameras and microphones turn to capture other stories, they always, without fail, turn right back to that one spot on planet earth that is God’s touchstone–to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, where the Holy of Holies sat and will reside again one prophetic day.
So, Israel is in the headlines again this past week. The hatreds of the world are in full display to prove God’s Word about the rebellion of the globalists found in Psalm 2.
Satan is in a rage because he above all else has wanted to completely destroy Israel and the Jewish people. If he could do so, he would make the Creator a liar, and his own fate in the Lake of Fire could be avoided.
But, God’s Word is truth. Things are unfolding exactly as God foretells, and right on time. Further proof of God’s prophetic truth is reflected in an excerpt or two from the following news story:
(May 9, 2018 / JNS) In the past 70 years, no single country’s stock has risen faster or farther than the State of Israel. Once a resource-poor, existentially endangered nation-state comprised of refugees from post-Holocaust Europe and Muslim countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Israel has emerged into a world economic, military and diplomatic superpower.
In just one week, Israel’s elevated status is being put on full display, in no small part due to the unlikely and oft-polarizing duo of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
It is, of course, fitting that the very date—May 14—of the new embassy’s opening ceremony corresponds both with Yom Yerushalayim (“Jerusalem Day”) on the Hebrew calendar and the 70th anniversary of Israel’s Independence on the secular calendar…
While the Jewish state’s stock is rising, Israel’s enemies are imploding. Though Iran has expanded its reach across the Middle East—wreaking havoc on Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen—severe cracks have been exposed in the dictatorial regime of the Islamic Republic. During the past year, public protests against the regime’s corruption have broken out across the country. And in the past several weeks, the value of Iran’s currency, the rial, has plummeted, throwing Iran into severe economic uncertainty even before the impending onset of the “highest level of economic sanctions” about to be imposed by the United States. (“Jerusalem is rising as Israel’s enemies falter,” Alex Traiman, JNS.org, May 13, 2018)
Proof of the truth of God’s Word is found throughout Bible prophecy. We are witnessing that proof each and every day as issues and events of our time emerge from the headlines.
Israel, although hated by most of the world leaders, is blossoming. So is the United States of America under this presidential administration.
Iran, arguably Israel’s chief enemy, whose Islamist leaders call Israel the “little Satan,” and America “the big Satan,” are sinking deeper into the curse promised to all who curse God’s chosen people.
There is no illusion here that terrible times are not to soon unfold for the Jewish people. It is prophesied. But the end of it all will be a glorious outcome beyond any ever bestowed upon any nation or people:
I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (Genesis 28:13-15)
Israel’s Vote and Joel’s Prophecy
Listening to the mainstream news talking heads the day after the elections in Israel in 2014 was self-validating. Like so many who try to use common sense in considering these strange times, I didn’t see any way the people of Israel would throw a strong defender of their nation out in order to install a Neville Chamberlain-like leader in such a critical political position at such a crucial time.
Days leading up to the Tuesday, March 17, 2014 vote by the Israeli people brought from liberal journalists every possible reason why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should lose and a more conciliatory government be installed.
Until the American presidential election of 2016, I had never heard such announced polling data forecasting a likely win that turned out to be so starkly wrong. Leading up to that Israeli election, the American press predicted a close race with Hertzog, Netanyahu’s opponent for prime minister, to be in the lead right up until the exit polls began on election day. Then it changed to “the election has tightened.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, as it turned out, claimed victory relatively early–so dramatically in his party’s favor had the voting gone. –This, even despite the American president having sent an election advisory team to Israel to help Netanyahu’s political opposition. I must admit that, like I did in the 2016 election of President Trump, I basked in the results of that election. At that time, I envied the people who had the good sense to re-elect the type leader (through their own brand of party politics) that I hoped we in America would be wise enough to elect again one day, should the world wag on in its precipitous state for a time yet.
While contemplating all of this–how pleased I was with the election results–I was brought back in a moment of epiphany to the deeper reality of what it all might mean in terms of God’s prophetic Word.
Benjamin Netanyahu made one campaign adjustment at the last minute that–my spiritual senses reminded–seemed to make the difference in his momentum toward re-election. He promised that if his government was returned to leadership, he would not allow a two-state solution to the ongoing Palestinian conflict with Israel.
We now get a sense of exactly the import of the prime minister’s speech before Congress on March 3, 2014. He laid out his case for why Israel must be on alert at all times against Iran and all of its enemy neighbors. At the heart of the hatred for Israel, of course, is the very point of the two-state solution much of the world of the diplomatic realm wants to force upon the Jewish state. At the same time, the Iranian antagonists and all other of the Islamist peoples surrounding Israel want only a one-state solution. They have voiced it many, many times since the establishment of Israel in 1948. Nasser, Sadat, and most every leader of Arab nations and of terrorist organizations in the Middle East have declared that they want Israel off the land it “occupies.”
They, in fact, have often, like the Nazis, proclaimed that the Jew is the problem with the lack of “peace” in the region and world. Every Jew should, therefore, be expunged from the earth.
There has been conjecture among those who watch the issues and events of the times, analyzing them in light of Bible prophecy. Many indicated they sensed that if Benjamin Netanyahu had lost the election, thus putting a Hertzog government in power, the results thereof would have increased the speed in dividing the land, thus bring on Armageddon.
The prophecy by Joel the prophet reads: “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (Joel 3: 2).
I understand where those considering the prophecy might reasonably conclude that dividing the land spoken here speaks to a future time when, for example, Antichrist causes the land to be divided as part of the covenant of Daniel 9: 26. Or, perhaps the dividing of the land might be thought to mean a precursor agreement such as one made by Obama and John Kerry or some others in the Roadmap to Peace process .
However, in the much greater context, God’s land has been divided for centuries by the world of nation-states. The land has been forced by the Babylonian system of successive governments to carve up God’s real estate covenant with Israel. For this, the world is about to pay a terrible price–be brought to the killing field called Armageddon.
The Obama administration simmered over what it called Netanyahu’s “divisive rhetoric” regarding the prime minister saying at the time that he would not allow two states. If Obama and the rest of the world diplomatic enclave could truly be made to understand the immensely greater danger of their own divisive demands–those demands against God’s chosen nation–they would indeed be trembling instead of continuing in the year 2018 to push for the phony peace that Joel and Isaiah say will destroy much of the world’s population.
We are in the most dangerous times in U.S. history. But, we must also be in the time very near hearing the call from Jesus: “Come up here!”
Exposing Earth Worshippers
Observers of these times through the prism of God’s prophetic Word shouldn’t be deceived by the wiles of the devil. Climate change isn’t the primary concern of the globalist minions, neither demonic nor human. The concern of the minions is primarily to seduce as many of earth’s inhabitants as possible into believing that humankind is destroying Mother Earth.
These minions don’t believe it for a second. But, they are determined to convince the world that planet Earth is a delicate organism that must be worshiped because she is the sustainer of life.
The globalists’ goal is to work to bring the earth’s total inhabitants to less than 500,000,000 people. They–the globalists–are to be, of course, the ruling class among this sustainable population of earth dwellers.
The real objective of the would-be rulers of the planet, make no mistake, is to be as gods–the same status Lucifer promised the first man and woman they would attain in the Garden.
Climate change has again raised it’s luciferic head in the never-ending attempt to foist the same old global-warming lie that has been on Satan’s seducing agenda for recent decades. We note that at the beginning of the following report, the appeal is to the female gender in rolling out the lie. Satan is if anything consistent in his maddening methodology.
The United Nations Climate Change Secretariat released its first ever annual report this week, in which it held up its “Gender Action Plan” as a key to increasing the participation of women in responding to global warming.
“Climate Change is the single biggest threat to life, security and prosperity on Earth,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa at the roll-out of the report.
“This annual report shows how UN Climate Change is doing everything it can to support, encourage and build on the global response to climate change,” Espinosa said, adding that “UN Climate Change’s mandate is to lead and support the global community in this international response, with the Paris Agreement and the Convention being the long-term vehicles for united global climate action.” (“U.N. Says Climate Change Is ‘Single Biggest Threat to Life, Security and Prosperity on Earth’,” Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty, by Thomas D. Williams PhD, Rapture Ready News, May 5, 2018, raptureready.com)
UN Secretary-General António Guterres added to the never-ending mantra that climate change is going to destroy us all if action isn’t forthcoming by those who love Mother Earth.
He warned that climate change is the “defining challenge of our time…yet it is still accelerating faster than our efforts to address it. Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are higher than they have been for 800,000 years, and they are increasing. So, too, are the catastrophic effects of our warming planet – extreme storms, droughts, fires, floods, melting ice and rising sea levels.”
Makes no difference that every bit of the foregoing has been debunked. It is irrelevant with these Mother Earth protectors, apparently, that remarks that include findings from 800,000 years ago are totally unsearchable. It is the same thing that William James the philosopher first said and Hitler’s propagandist Josef Goebbels seized upon: Tell a lie long enough and loud enough and soon it will become accepted as truth.
One fact about the human creature Lucifer instinctively knew from the beginning of his seduction: People, in their fallen condition, will for the most part, choose to worship anything rather than the God who created them. Like Lucifer himself, they want to view themselves as godlike and do things their own way.
Psalms chapter 2 tells that the globalists wish to break free from the bonds of Heaven–from the governing hand the Supreme Being exerts on their capability to do what is right in their own eyes.
These human minions, spurred on by the demonic minions, work incessantly to convince the rest of us that we must look at the earth as our sustainer of life. We must treat her with great reverence. We must, in effect, worship her.
The lie includes the charge that those who do not follow this ecological-religious ideology–for example, Christians who don’t look at planet Earth as a living organism that must be treated as deity–are sinners of the first order. We won’t be among the elite 500,000,000 who ultimately will be privileged to inhabit the planet in order to make it sustainable.
We who follow God’s Word do have respect for the environment. We do want to do the best possible job of protecting this world that was made for us to live, work, and play upon. But, we don’t consider it a goddess to be worshiped.
The Lord says the following regarding the attempts by the globalist types to construct worship systems other than true worship of the True God:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1:18-25)
Terry’s Interview with Jan Markell – Olive Tree Ministries – May 12, 2018
Jan Markell and Eric Barger welcome author Terry James as they talk about his new book “Deceivers.” Jesus, Paul, Timothy, and more, warned of last days’ deception. There is a subtle Satanic seduction of society today and we are drowning in deception in the world and church.
You can listen to the interview here:
Drowning in Deception
Indoctrination disguised as education. The religion of climate change enshrined. Witchcraft and the occult made mainstream. Fake news. We live in a world where deception is rampant and true agendas are rarely revealed.
Jesus foretold of this time as He answered His disciples’ question: What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Bible prophecy experts present analysis of today’s issues and events in Deceivers, revealing that Christ’s prophecy is literally unfolding before us today.
A collection of 12 leading experts.
Discover false prophets hiding behind the thin veneer of religious half-truths
Unveil the globalist agenda behind diplomatic, judicial, and political hypocrisy
Go behind misleading headlines and entertainment illusions to discern the truth.
AMAZON