Prophecy Line
Seduction in the Storm
We are currently writing a book called Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers and Their Last-Days Deception.” I say “we” are writing it, because it is to be one of my books that presents a compilation of chapters by some of the most recognizable names. These include Todd Strandberg, Jan Markell, Dr. Dave Reagan, Gary Stearman, Dr. Gary Frazier, and others.
Jesus, while sitting on the Mount of Olives with His disciples nearly two millennia ago, gave as His first forewarning that, in the last days, deceivers will be in abundance. Certainly, there is deception at every level at this present time in human history.
Ruminating over the book we are in process of writing, the thought came that we have on the front burner of headline news a storm-like combination of signals harboring seduction and deception that begs exposure.
The primary foretellings I would like to look at that Jesus gave while answering His disciples’ question— “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”–include the following:
1) There will be distress of nations with perplexity.
2) There will be wars and rumors of wars.
3) There will be earthquakes in various places.
4) The seas and waves will be roaring.
5) Nation will rise against nation.
During all of this last-days storminess, Jesus said, there will be deceivers and great deception. Again, this is the subject of our upcoming book. But, I would like to consider for our purposes here a peculiar seduction within the end-of-days storm that is assaulting this generation:
1)There will be distress of nations with perplexity.
We have only to consider recent news to validate this Olivet prophecy by the Lord.
The national and world economic distresses are phenomenal. America’s own national debt is right at $20 trillion. The unfunded liabilities for the nation exceeds $200 trillion. The world at large has economic circumstances that are maybe not so large, but just as perplexing to those trying to deal with the problem.
2) There will be wars and rumors of wars.
There exists at present, one of the most troubling confrontations since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un threatens to launch hydrogen bomb tipped ICBMs at the U.S. and our possessions and allies. Whether he has this capability is a matter of conjecture. But, the threat is there.
Other rumors of potential wars can be found without effort simply by thinking on Israel and those blood-vowed to remove the Jewish state from the planet.
The cold war might again become reality in the near future. This, with Russia and China building massive military forces even at the expense of Russia’s already-dire economic circumstances on the one hand and China’s desire to, for its own benefit, interact commercially with other nations on the other.
Rumors of war are everywhere one looks on the geopolitical horizon.
3) There will be earthquakes in various places.
Most recently, while hurricanes Harvey and Irma devastated portions of the U.S. mainland, an 8.2 earthquake struck Mexico.
Swarms of earthquakes up to 5.3 on the Richter Scale continue to shake the infamous Yellowstone caldera region, causing alarm even among seasoned, professional seismologists.
Earthquakes make much of the Middle East quiver on a regular basis. They are occurring in “various places” at most every hour of every day.
4) The seas and waves will be roaring.
There’s no question that the literal seas and waves have been roaring as of late. Again, Harvey and Irma were given 24/7 coverage on practically every news channel over recent days.
But, I believe the Lord was prophesying mainly about figurative seas and waves roaring in this particular foretelling while atop Mt. Olivet.
The peoples of the world are indeed in tumult. Europe is rioting because of economic turbulence. The Arab world is often in tumult against the hated Israel and against each other. America boils with clashes fomented in many cases by thugs paid to stir trouble in our city streets.
The seas and waves, both figurative and literal, are roaring.
5) Nation will rise against nation.
We have looked many times at the term “nation” in this prophecy Jesus gave.
The root of the word for “nation,” here, is the Greek word ethnos. This means that in the days just before Christ’s Second Advent (Revelation 19: 1) there will be great strife of one racial group against another.
Certainly, these kinds of conflicts exist at this very moment everywhere across the planet –including within our own borders. All we must do to understand this is to look at the groups known as the white supremacists and Black Lives Matter to see the reality of this prophecy taking place in our own time. –And we are at least seven years away from Christ’s Second Advent when Armageddon will be raging.
So, we can conclude that we are in the beginning of the great, end-times storm about which Jesus forewarned. Now, to look at the peculiar seduction that I believe is taking place as part of Satan’s deception that is, perhaps, at the eye of this prophetic storm.
The following news story, I hope, will help make the point I wish to make.
Sure, the US has a National Flood Insurance Program, but who’s covered by it? Besides, the Program was already $24 billion in debt by 2014 largely due to hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. With total costs of Harvey estimated at $200 billion or more, and Irma threatening to cause far more damage than that, where’s the money going to come from?
It took an actual fight just to push the first few billion dollars in emergency aid for Houston through Congress, with four Texan senators voting against of all people. Who then will vote for half a trillion or so in aid? And even if they do, where would it come from?
Trump’s plans for an infrastructure fund were never going to be an easy sell in Washington, and every single penny he might have gotten for it would now have to go towards repairing existing roads and bridges, not updating them -necessary as that may be-, let alone new construction.
Towns, cities, states, they’re all maxed out as things are, with hugely underfunded pension obligations and crumbling infrastructure of their own. They’re going to come calling on the feds, but Washington is hitting its debt ceiling. All the numbers are stacked against any serious efforts at rebuilding whatever Harvey and Irma have blown to pieces or drowned. (“After the Storms Are Over: America Can’t Afford to Rebuild, Zero Hedge,” By Tyler Durden, September 10, 2017)
The author paints the direst portrait of the results the storms will bring to America. (You must read the complete piece to get the full impact.) And, I would agree completely with his assessment of the situation–that is, if I didn’t know “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.
The world’s economies, as I have written many times, are intricately, inextricably linked to that of America. That’s why I build my thoughts on things that are likely to happen–prophetically speaking–upon the American model. If this nation implodes—comes crashing down–the whole world will be sucked into the vortex caused by the collapse.
Jesus tells us that, like in the days of Noah and of Lot, people at the time of his next catastrophic intervention into history will be buying, selling, planting, and marrying–doing all the normal activities of life. I believe, because it is Jesus who predicts the buying, selling, etc.,– that it will be far more than normal in its reality. I believe we are about to see an economic boom.
Somehow, some way–I don’t presume to know how–all of the destruction taking place now because of the hurricane damage might well turn out to be catalyst for the prophesied building, buying, and selling Jesus foretold that day atop the Mount of Olives.
The “seduction” I believe wrapped up in all of this might well reside within the good economic times that could result from the rebuilding—i.e., the economic boom that might be on its way might take people’s thoughts even farther from God. The seduction just might produce the think-not generation that Jesus prophesied will be doing anything but giving consideration to God and eternity:
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. (Matthew 24:44)
Donald Trump is a builder perhaps unparalleled in history. Could it be that he is president of the United States for just this moment in regard to Jesus’ days of Noah, days of Lot prophecy?
Prophecy’s Puzzle Pieces
I thought it a good time to again look at how this generation shapes up with regard to the Bible prophecy puzzle. I define “prophecy puzzle” for purposes here as the agglomerate, major prophecies given for that portion of the wrap-up of human history prior to the Millennium.
Next, we must think on what prophecies are major and which are minor. This will doubtless be considered a judgment call by some measure, but it is nonetheless a distinction that should be attempted, even though yours truly might be branded as presumptuous by some for venturing into that arena.
I will, however, risk the obloquy.
I’m sent daily many news items or purported news items that are unfounded speculation. Most who send these—and I appreciate being kept informed by those who send pertinent items—believe the information relates directly to Bible prophecy being fulfilled in our time. For example, items referring to children and/or animals being micro-chipped for purposes of finding them in case they are missing frequently are such items of interest I find in my inbox.
While such electronic implantation is indeed of interest, it does not, in my view, equate to people who agree to this implantation saying they agree to receive the mark of the Beast prophesied in Revelation 13:16–18.
Such concern is legitimate to a degree, I agree, with regard to Bible prophecy yet future because it does show humanism’s progression toward the implementation of that Antichrist system of control. However, again, in my opinion, it does not rise to the level of being one of the major prophetic developments taking place in our day. It is not one of the prophetic puzzle pieces I am writing about here in our attempt to fill out the end-times big picture.
So, what are the major pieces of the end-of-the-age puzzle, and how do they fit within the picture we are seeing develop through our daily news headlines? Just where do we stand on God’s prophetic timeline late in 2017?
I will attempt to analyze these puzzle pieces from their ascending order as I view them—i.e., from the least significant to the most significant. Again, these are judgment calls that will no doubt engender not-so-gentle disagreement.
Daniel 12: 4 Every direction one turns, the explosion of technology greets the senses of this generation. Moore’s law observes that over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. I’m told by someone I consider a computer expert that this “law” no longer applies. The technology is rapidly reaching its limits at the “molecular level.” Now, whereas I fully admit to my ignorance of exactly what that means, I do know that this, if true, means the advancement of knowledge in this particular area of computer science is nearing its maximum development, barring unforeseen breakthroughs.
When considering this bit of information alone, the prophet Daniel’s words have never been more in view. The information age, with the basic knowledge of mankind doubling and redoubling every few months and years for a long time now, has been a part of this generation. It is a major puzzle piece of the big picture.
Ezekiel 38–39
We have written many times about how the development of the Gog-Magog coalition almost certainly seems to be in the making.
Russia, “Rosh,” as given in the KJV of the prophecy, is cozy with Iran, “Persia.” These entities are in cahoots to threaten Israel and many other nations in the Middle East and elsewhere.
“Rosh” even has an arrogant, ruthlessly ambitious leader that forever more seems to fit the “Gog” character prophesied to lead that diabolist horde in attempt to plunder the land to their south.
Putin, in particular, is in the headlines on an hourly basis, and seems to be pushing all nations of the world into the end-times milieu, most fundamentalist, Pre-Trib prophecy scholars agree.
The natural gas deposits that Putin controls give him leverage over Europe and all within his sphere of influence. Without the natural gas, Europe will quickly descend into hardships beyond imagining.
Israel is the one fly in Putin’s ointment. The Jewish state apparently possesses gas deposits greater than those under the Russian leader’s thumb. Problem is, they are under water, just off the coast, and as of now there is no practical way to get the gas to Europe and others who could benefit from the resource.
Want to bet that Israel will soon announce technology that can deliver that product to whomever wants to buy it?
Then, I believe, there will be some major action by their hostile neighbors to the north. Regardless, the Gog-Magog prophecy is a puzzle piece ready to fill out the end-of-the-age picture.
Revelation 13:16–18
Gog—the leader of Rosh, will think an evil thought. It will involve plunder—riches. It will be in large part about economy.
The whole world more and more today concerns itself, collectively, with matters of economy. It is only by God’s staying hand, in my and others’ views, that the world system, starting with the United States economy, hasn’t come crashing down.
Some leaders of this nation and the nations of the world seem to want to implode the economy of Planet Earth, as a matter of fact. But, this has not been allowed. I believe that is because it is the Rapture, not the devices and ambitions of the powers-elite that will bring the world system of economy—and everything else—cascading down around the ears of the rebellious earth dwellers, as God’s prophetic Word calls them.
It will be the Lord’s decision and timing, not theirs.
The tremendous angst portrayed daily in national and world headlines regarding monetary matters presents the picture of this major piece of the prophetic puzzle. The things involved are shaping for the moment when the world’s last and most evil tyrant will step onto the stage of history and institute the marks-and-numbers system that will somehow glorify his name and that of his father, the devil.
2 Thessalonians 2:3
That man of sin—the Antichrist—can’t appear to institute that devastatingly brilliant marks-and-numbers system of absolute control until the apostasy is full blown. That means the church of Jesus Christ will be first taken from the planet to receive rewards and to dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Apostasy, the Greek word apostasia, has two definitions, and I believe both are in play in this prophecy (I suggest you get our book published some years ago, The Departure, to ascertain the meanings offered here): 1) The “falling away” means the departure of the church from earth; 2) The “falling away” means the departure from the truth as given by God. The Bible is the prescription for living by which man should comport himself in order to live in true, godly peace.
Sadly, even a large part of the true church is caught up in apostasy in these closing days of the Age of Grace. We have only to flip through the television channels at any given hour to see devotion given not to God, but to the individual. The “prosperity” message rings from practically every “Christian” channel. God promises prosperity to His children, especially for dollars sown to the ministry clanging out the message.
The perversion of the truth regarding God’s provision is ubiquitous. The gospel message is on the very back burner—ahead only of Bible prophecy. Such anxiety-producing thoughts as sin and coming judgment for a wicked world does not facilitate the euphoric sense of self-help the wealth-and-health purveyors slyly present in their slick, God-is-Sugar-Daddy stream of gobbledygook. The world’s love of money is thus validated by the twisters of truth within the church structure. It is a key puzzle piece of the end-times picture.
Zechariah 12:1–2
Israel is the most profound end-of-the-age puzzle piece. This tiny state, although hounded and threatened with extinction and surrounded by the hatred of not only its immediate Islamic enemies, but by the entire world in a growing anti-Semitic campaign, stands strong even as its once-staunch ally, America, backs away, even embraces, those who would eliminate the nation if they could.
But, they can’t. The God of Heaven is on their side, despite the Jews’ blindness to His Son, Jesus the Christ.
Zechariah the prophet gives us the greatest single puzzle piece that tells us precisely where this generation stands with regard to the nearness of Christ’s return.
Daniel 9:26–27
Daniel further presents the single most amazing element within Zechariah’s great prophetic message. The peace process that will ultimately produce that “covenant made with death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15, 18) is, at this late hour, on the drawing board of history for all to witness. The no longer mentioned Roadmap to Peace isn’t the final product, but it is at the heart of formulating the process that will produce, I believe, the instrument Antichrist will use to, “through peace, destroy many” (Daniel 8:25).
That covenant will be the final puzzle piece to bring the age to a close. It will finalize man’s rebellious antagonism to the God of Heaven and will initiate the worst era of human history, according to Jesus, the greatest of all prophets.
Putin Predicts Coming Prince
One would almost think that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pouring over prophetic Scripture in the Bible. He has predicted that the entity that becomes the ultimate leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will rule planet earth. His is a most interesting prognostication. Here’s an excerpt from the news item laying out ol’ Vlad’s foretelling.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that whoever reaches a breakthrough in developing artificial intelligence will come to dominate the world.
Putin, speaking Friday at a meeting with students, said the development of AI raises “colossal opportunities and threats that are difficult to predict now.” (Source: Putin: Leader in Artificial Intelligence Will Rule World, Houston Chronicle, 9/2/2017)
The former KGB operative turned dictator/oligarch of the nucleus of what was the Soviet Union before perestroika, glasnost, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and finally the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., said further that “the one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world.”
The Russian warned that “it would be strongly undesirable if someone wins a monopolist position.” He pledged that Russia would share its know-how in artificial intelligence with other nations.
Putin predicted that drones will fight future wars. He said, “When one party’s drones are destroyed by drones of another, it will have no other choice but to surrender.”
The Putin prediction would be amusing, if not so much on the eerie side—kind of like Gog of Ezekiel 38–39 “prophesying” the emergence of the prince that shall come of Daniel 9:26–27.
We have mentioned numerous times that Vladimir Putin displays characteristics that the future leader of the Gog-Magog attack will possess, according to the prophet Ezekiel. Putin, here, is delving into perhaps not the characteristics of Antichrist, but certainly into the technological realm Revelation seems to indicate that future fuhrer will have at his disposal.
The Russian says that the leader in such advanced technology will eventually rule the world. To be sure, Antichrist is prophesied to rule over most of the world at a point during the seven-year Tribulation era. His rule will be brief and chaotic, but it will be brutal and, according to Jesus Himself, will bring a time upon the people of the planet worse than any before or after.
Artificial Intelligence will mark his despotic control. He will, through the most advanced computer (AI) technology, do the following:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16–17)
But AI is, perhaps, prophesied to go much deeper than Antichrist’s 666 computer controls. Some would say there will come a destructive military force that appears to be completely robotic, commanded through AI to assault Jerusalem during that time known as the Day of the Lord. It is a terrifying description of a superhuman—or perhaps hybrid or robotic—force destined to riffle the city and ravish its women, according to prophecy.
Read about what some call Joel’s Army (Joel 2: 1-11).
(I wrote a short story of a fictional nature about Joel’s Army years ago for a filmmaker. That story can be linked below.)
http://www.raptureready.com/2017/09/09/joels-army-a-short-story
AI is a hot topic, causing an uproar even among some of the well-known leaders in its development.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk got into a spat recently on Twitter with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg over the dangers of artificial intelligence.
Musk urged a group of governors to proactively regulate AI, which he views as a “fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.”
“Until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal,” Musk said.
Zuckerberg shot back, saying fearmongering about AI is “irresponsible.” (Source: “Humanlike Robots Provoke Questions about our Humanity,” Rosalie Chan, Religion News Service)
Many scientists and futurists are declaring that from some point in the near future, major wars will be waged by beings of intelligence superior to that of mere mortals. However, Bible prophecy tells that, ultimately, it is human blood that will flow to the bridle reins following the fighting at Armageddon. It is the corpses of millions of human beings that will have to be buried following the battle of Gog and Magog.
Isaiah’s End -Times Earth: The Human Condition – By Ed Wood
In the previous article, we took a look at the physical conditions that would characterize the planet as history comes to its inevitable conclusion. It seems that to get a more complete picture, we should take a look at what kind of people will populate this disintegrating world.
Where it Began
Isaiah {5:20-21} Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Human beings are great at self-justification ever since the Fall in the distant past. Way back when, God gave the first two people an entire world, perfect in every way. Death, hardship, disease, and pain was unknown. They needed only to reach out their hands to get fruit from the trees which God had caused to grow in Eden. Only one thing was off-limits – the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
I’ve often wondered about why God would have even put this tree in the garden in the first place. Wouldn’t the subsequent history of the human race been so much better if it hadn’t been there in the first place? To be sure, it would be presumptuous for me to give you a definitive answer, but I can’t help to speculate all the same. I believe it has everything to do with free will. It would have been easy enough for God to hard-wire his first pair of creation to always follow his dictates. But he did not. Perhaps the reason for this is that forced devotion is nothing but a lie and the Bible teaches us that Satan is the father of all lies (John 8:44), not the God of All Creation. God wanted people to be able to make a choice – to genuinely choose him or not. But more often than not, we still don’t and the world and society we wake up to every day is the sad result.
Adam and Eve made the first bad choice in human history and immediately tried to justify it:
Genesis {3:6} And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and ave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
It’s even better if there we can find someone else to blame, as Adam and Eve did when God caught them:
Genesis {3:12-14} And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What [is] this [that] thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit, no to mention God for giving him Eve in the first place. Eve blamed the serpent. Any of this reasoning sound familiar? It should in a time where standard procedure is to blame someone else for messing up, rather than ourselves.
The results of our initial fall have plagued the human race making much of its history the dark tale that it is. Over and over empires have risen and fallen in a process that has hitherto been inescapable. The United States which was founded on Judaeo-Christian values is certainly on its way to collapse as it increasingly turns away from God and his biblical principles. Behaviors and lifestyles which were once considered aberrant are either now embraced as a new norm or excused by reclassifying them as a psychological or physical disorder, thus relieving those who perform them of personal responsibility.
Let’s look at some particulars which apply to the fall of societies of the past:
Moral Inversion
Of course, we already have seen Isaiah’s short but profound assessment of End-Times society. The kind of world he saw in the future is hauntingly familiar to those which preceded him in the distant past. Genesis, chapters 6-10 gives us an account of the status of the kind of society that existed during the time of Noah:
Genesis {6:5-6} And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
The dire situation of those days was no doubt aided and abetted by the half-human, half demonic giants (Nephilim) that existed at that time (Genesis 6:1-4). Apparently Earth itself was affected, as we have seen in a previous article:
Genesis {6:11-12} The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
In fact, it was so bad that the only remedy was for God to totally erase it and start over with Noah and his family. Interestingly Jesus said:
Matthew {24:36-37} But of that day and hour knoweth no [man,] no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe [were,] so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Since we can rely on the absolute certainty of Jesus’ words, this kind of society will exist once again at the end of history. Let’s see where we already are in reference to those of the past.
The Acceptance of “Alternate Lifestyles”
Perhaps one of the most glaring examples of morality gone awry today is the growing acceptance of homosexual behavior in most of western civilization. For example, in the United States alone homosexuals are being accorded hate crimes protection which heterosexuals do not have, being allowed to marry and adopt children, serve in the military, and in many protestant denominations be ordained clergy people.
Though not speaking specifically of the acceptance of same-sex relations, this has indeed been a problem throughout the human race’s tenure on Earth, and the Bible has many references to it and its eventual results of a moral reversal upon any civilization, the most prominent being the account of the conditions characterizing Sodom and Gomorrah:
Genesis {13:13} But the men of Sodom [were] wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
It is very likely this wickedness was broad-spectrum, not confined to any one failing, but rather to a multitude of evils. Peter once said:
2 Peter {3:9} The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
God is a God of patience, holding back on judgment in hopes that a person, or collectively, a society, will turn back onto the right path. He’ll also spare it to save a righteous remnant as we can see in this discourse:
Genesis {18:23-32} And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that [are] therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which [am but] dust and ashes: Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for [lack of] five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy [it. ] And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do [it] for forty’s sake. And he said [unto him,] Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do [it,] if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy [it] for twenty’s sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy [it] for ten’s sake.
We all know how this turned out. God couldn’t find any righteous souls in these ancient twin cities of evil other than Lot and his family. In an exchange between Lot wishing to protect the visiting angels the Lord had sent to survey the situation from his neighbors we discover one specific evil which afflicted this society:
Genesis {19:4-5} But before they lay down, the men of the city, [even] the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where [are] the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know *them.* The term “know” here is used in the same context as in Matthew 1:25, which means have sexual intercourse.
It is sad, but true, that this same acceptance of perverted behavior prevalent in Sodom and Gomorrah, and such great empires of the past as Greece and Rome is now being repeated in Europe and the Americas. It is certainly not occurring in a vacuum, but rather is but one symptom of many. For the two cities of Abraham’s time its end came as a result of direct divine intervention once Lot and his family were told to depart:
Genesis {19:24-25} Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Sometimes God employs the tools at hand as we see him use the Hebrews to execute judgment on the evil original inhabitants of Canaan, of the Assyrians to bring it to the northern kingdom if Israel which had become corrupted, and Babylonians to do the same thing to the southern kingdom of Judah for the same reason. If powerful empires like those of the past can fall, there is no reason to think the even one as strong as the United States is immune. The common denominator is that no society can call “evil good and good evil” forever, be it from thousands of years in the past or right outside the door today.
Genetic and Electronic Manipulation
Technology has reached the point where the separation between the organic and inorganic is quickly fading. Implantable devices to aid failing ears, eyes, and hearts are already commonplace. Advances in genetics are creating modifications to existing life. Though many of these have positive benefits, as with any technology they can be misused for evil purposes. Adolf Hitler engaged in research to create a master race and it may not be long before the first trans-humans created by mechanical and genetic means walk the Earth in a terrifying replication of the Nephilim super beings of Genesis, adding yet another element to the scenario Jesus himself revealed which we mentioned in the beginning of this article – that of the days of Noah revisited. Now we’ll look at more examples from the New Testament.
1) Idolatry and Apostasy
Luke {21:8} And he* said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am [Christ;] and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
I Timothy {4:1} Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. *This is now the case in much of Western Protestantism. Such departures from biblical doctrine such as pluralistic salvation, acceptance of homosexual behavior even among the clergy, and even the incorporation of pagan practices have become commonplace in many of the mainstream denominations today.
2) Persecution of Christians
Matthew {24:9} Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and yeshall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
3) Family conflicts
Luke {21:16} And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and [some] of you shall they cause to be put to death. Jesus is the speaker here.
4) Wars
Luke {21:9-10}But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end [is] not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
5) People become heartless:
Matthew {24:10,12}And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. . . And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
The words above are all from Jesus himself. Below, we get Paul’s words:
6) The increase of the acceptance of homosexual behavior and the reason for it:
Romans {1:21, 26-27}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. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
7) A summary of end-times humanity:
Romans {1:29-32} Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
2 Timothy {3:1-5} This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Concluding Thoughts
When we read all these words written thousands of years ago, it is both striking and chilling just how familiar they sound to we who reside in the Twenty-first Century. One cannot pick up a newspaper or listen to the news on radio or television and not know that something is clearly wrong. Attending this realization is another that it all appears to be totally out of our control, and on a large scale that’s certainly true. Those of us who read and believe the Bible know the path history must inevitably follow – and we are seeing it happen before our eyes.
On a personal level the situation is very different. God created each of us with a free will, giving each one of us the ability to decide where we will spend eternity. This all depends on whether we accept Jesus’ offer of salvation or not. As he explained to the apostle Thomas, he is the only way to achieve it:
John {14:6} Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
But be warned – the Bible tells us that this opportunity will not last forever:
Isaiah {55:6} Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.
2 Corinthians {6:2b} . . . behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.
Noah and Antichrist’s Hypnotists: Part 3
Noah, the movie, was, I believe, an instrumentality meant to put into the psyche (or, if you prefer, the darkest regions of the reasoning process) of mankind the fiction the serpent wants to create. God’s Word is the lie; Lucifer is truth–that is the intentioned brain-washing end goal.
Specifically, the use of the Genesis 6 account, in a perverted way, puts forth in this film that the “watchers” are the angels kicked out of Heaven and confined to earth as stone-like creatures. They intermingle with humankind, but, ultimately, do good instead of evil, repent, and are redeemed and allowed back into Heaven. It is interesting that rather than deny that there was war in Heaven and the fallen angels were kicked out, the Hollywood story-tellers twisted it in this way.
The bad, supernatural guys become the good, supernatural guys, and do their work now for the Lord, as before their “fall.” It is plainly part of fulfilling the prophecy that near the end of human history the fable-makers will call good evil and evil good. This sets up in the minds of the moviegoers who are without a clue of Bible truth that these same “watchers” possibly interact with mankind today and have good intentions to help humanity muddle through this dangerous world.
There are many, many things to which I could point that are part of the end-times stage being set for the wind-up of the age. Like, for example, the way God becomes withdrawn in the movie, becoming the existential deity agnostic philosophers have long claimed God to be. I could point to the egregious treatment of both the Lord and Noah as being vindictive, heartless, and even murderous–for example, when Noah is portrayed as wanting to murder his daughter-in-law. We could dwell to an endless extent on the hellish lie-proposition put forward by the movie that God destroyed all upon the earth because mankind had been environmentally evil–that He wanted to restart the earth only so the animal life could return to an environmentally safe and pristine state.
However, I believe the most important matter for this essay is to point out that the way Hollywood treats the fallen angels in this film is crucial to earth’s prophetic future. The UFO phenomenon plays strongly into my thoughts. Also, the New Age intrusion into these strange times is critical to observe for the Christian. I am convinced that the very deception Jesus prophesied is upon this generation. Noah, the movie, under the guise of “innocent” entertainment, is part of the mesmerizing, hypnotic process that will make people following the Rapture susceptible to the “lie” during that post-Rapture time.
God’s prophetic Word tells of that time in the following scriptural passages. Antichrist is mentioned first: “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: 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.” (2 Thess. 2:8-10).
Next, the prophecy speaks to the lie that will deceive the post-Rapture world of earth-dwellers: “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” (2 Thess. 2:11-12).
Panic and mayhem will explode when millions vanish in a blink of an eye. There will be an outcry for explanations of what happened. This is where the inculcation Satan has been foisting on the world will pay off for the serpent.
We have all seen the documentaries and movies on UFOs, the “space brothers,” and other such claims by those looking for some explanation of how life got here. Alien seeding of planet earth is preferable to the biblical creation account to the fallen minds of mankind. Evolution, to the willfully ignorant, is more believable –that all we see around us just happened to happen, totally by chance.
However, evolution is falling out of favor with the modern, “rational” mindset. The “space brothers” will fit much more nicely into the 2 Thessalonians, post-Rapture time. We see what might take place following the disappearance of millions of Christians, when the second beast–the false prophet–performs a seemingly supernatural feat before the eyes of the left behind world:
“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” (Rev. 13:13-14).
I’m of the thought that the “fire” called down might be the “space brothers” the entertainment industry has been inculcating moviegoers with for decades. These might be the same “ascended masters” the New Age gurus have been promising for those same decades. Noah, the movie, is, in my opinion, part of the end- times hypnotism taking place in preparation for Antichrist’s arrival. It will be the time, I believe, as given in the following:
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:7-9).
It is all preparation for the horror of the Tribulation that is rushing toward this fallen world: “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Rev. 12:12b).
With the ever-increasing effort by Satan to hypnotize the masses with all of the aforementioned, it is a comforting –and legitimate—thing to say that Jesus’ words should ring more urgently than ever in the true Christian’s spiritual ears.
“And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).
Prelude to Planetary Madness
News reports forewarn a nation descending toward chaos. Forces have obviously been set in motion that threaten to tear America apart. This instigation is purposeful, I have no doubt, and is spawned by Satan.
Saul Alinsky’s blueprint to bring about chaos so the one-world-order builders’ perfect, utopian plan can eventually rise from the ashes of this republic is well underway. George Soros and all the other globalists elite have little trouble finding minions of the human source to carry out the carnage. Lucifer’s demonic minions throw fuel of hatred on the fires of anarchy, and we see the incendiary results in our hourly headlines.
A 1979 Hollywood production, remade in 1980, 1985, and 2015, I believe, gives a fictionalized look at the real world to come when God the Holy Spirit removes from acting as restrainer on the already half-crazed minds of earth dwellers.
Mad Max is the disturbing foreshadowing of things to come when the Body of Christ—the Church—is removed in the Rapture.
Although made in Australia, the movie was Americanized in that the Aussie accents were dubbed over in the American-English accent in order to give the sense of the carnage taking place in the U.S. The storyline, set in the near future, portrayed a world gone mad with evil. The dystopian film presented in graphic terms people’s unrestrained actions against their fellow human beings.
Of course, the creators of the film had no idea that Bible prophecy presents just such a scenario—at least, I don’t think that entered their thinking.
We find the real story of things to come in this regard in the following Scripture.
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 [restrains] will [restrain], 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 6–8)
When God the Holy Spirit withdraws from restraining wickedness perpetrated by fallen mankind, the world will become instantly worse than the fictional world of Mad Max. The present hostilities and chaos being churned by the would-be masters—both human and demonic—will swiftly result in destructiveness beyond description. We are indeed currently enduring a prelude to planetary madness.
But the Creator has not left us in a state of hopelessness despite the rioting and insanity going on in our nation and world. The Lord has provided a way to escape the carnage so vividly described in Revelation by John the apostle while exiled on Patmos two thousand years ago.
I wrote the following for our book, The Departure: God’s Next Catastrophic Intervention Into Earth’s History:
First, the Departure
Before God’s wrath falls, in the twinkling of an eye (an atomos of time), millions of Christians—those born again by believing in the shed blood of Christ on the cross two millennia ago for salvation—will vanish from the earth’s surface. The departure—the Rapture—will bring planet-rending disturbances to an already reeling world of nonbelievers.
God has been patient in allowing the world to see the Tribulation storm alerts. He has shown mercy and grace, as there is no prophecy given that must be fulfilled in order for the Rapture to happen. The departure can take place at any moment.
Getting out the warnings is the duty of spiritual meteorologists. This is a commission each author in The Departure: God’s Next Catastrophic Intervention into Earth’s History takes most seriously. We prayerfully hope many, upon reading the book, will take to heart the call of the only Lord and God of all Creation, who prompted the apostle Peter to write: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
This is the only way to be saved from the sin that separates the sinner from the Heavenly Father. This is the only way to be secure from the approaching Tribulation storm.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10: 9–10)
We join with the prophet John, who wrote, “He which testifieth these things saith, ‘Surely I come quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
Noah and Antichrist’s Hypnotists–Part 2
There is no more appropriate time that God’s prophetic warning through the apostle Paul applies than at this very moment in human history: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
This generation is in a time of deep, dark, deception. Jesus Himself, before giving the many signs of His Second Coming, forewarned of one specific danger in answer to His disciples’ question about when He would come again to earth. The Lord gave answers while they sat atop the Mount of Olives looking down on the Temple and Mount Moriah: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt. 24:4).
The very end of the age will be a time of great deception, Jesus emphasized. His Holy Name will even be at the center of the deception, He warned. The believer –the born again—was to avoid being deceived, He instructed.
We are examining the Hollywood entertainment offering of a supposedly biblical nature. Noah, film-maker Darren Aronofsky’s high-dollar film, surpassed by far what the movie money gurus expected, grossing over $44 million out of the starting blocks. They had expected perhaps $30 million would come into their coffers from theatergoers.
Many Christian pundits predicted the movie would fall flat because of the total disregard the producers of the film showed for fidelity to truth of God’s Word in its account of Noah and the Flood. That was the hope of many within evangelical Christianity, once the content of the story presented was exposed to the viewing public.
Noah, although by all accounts a technically brilliant film, and one with superb acting–with Russell Crow, a Hollywood heavyweight, as Noah–was an almost complete fabrication–fiction from the get-go. There was little similarity between the story line of the movie and the biblical account.
Was this innocent misunderstanding in a Hollywood attempt to provide entertainment –or something other? This is what I would like us to consider. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi master-propagandist in Hitler’s regime of genocide, had the understanding and technique down pat. You could persuade, could mesmerize an entire nation’s public through on-screen inculcation. All we have to do to know this is true is to watch the black-and- white films shot of the hypnotic looks on the faces of the German people while they watched Goebbels’ films and listened to the Fuehrer’s rants at the massively-attended Nazi rallies.
Hollywood’s capabilities are technologically improved a thousand times over. The special effects, blended superbly with the stories presented, rather than overtly hypnotize the viewers, subliminally infuse into their psyches the worldviews those who control Hollywood worldly thinking desire to infuse.
Lucifer –Satan—is the father of lies, the Scripture tells us. Fiction, although not overt lies in the dictionary sense, nonetheless, are lies in the ultimate, literal sense. That is, fiction is not truth, although it might purport to portray truth. It has been termed the “willing suspension of disbelief”–i.e., the willing are willfully accepting of the lie.
This is what happened to the first two humans, isn’t it, according to the Bible?–If, of course, you believe the Bible. The serpent, remember, created a “suspension of disbelief” moment. He presented a half-truth fiction: “Ye shall not surely die.”
The serpent is still up to creating fiction based on lies meant to do their deadly work on the human mind and soul. He is the father of such… In the movie Noah, first shown in 2014, the suspension of disbelief is rampant. According to the reviews I’ve read –both from secular sources like Rolling Stone and the New York Times, and religious forums— the story from beginning to end is filled with scenes contrary to God’s account. The moviegoer was to put aside his or her preconditioned notions that what the film presented was false theology and history. They were to believe –without thinking too deeply about it–that the story of Noah and the Flood really could have happened as the Hollywood version has it. Regardless, what’s the harm? After all, it’s just a movie –good, Hollywood-quality entertainment.
Especially in the Western world, there is a concerted campaign to dumb down people in every sense. The principalities and powers of Ephesians 6:11-18 and the flesh-and-blood powers–the would-be, one-world order builders—are using every method available to hypnotize, in Joseph Goebbels fashion—the masses. They are determined to bring all back to Babel.
We will examine just how far along we might be in that process in next week’s commentary–Lord willing.
Bannon vs Globalists and Bible Prophecy
Observers of end-times events who believe there is an advancing power grab by the globalists elite look with interest at Steve Bannon’s exit as President Trump’s chief strategist. National politics that make up part of the intrigues going on in the White House are secondary at most, so the thinking goes. Matters involving the long-sought changed world order is all-important in considering the most recent developments in Washington, D.C.
On the secular side, many–perhaps most–media pundits speculate that the Republican establishment types have succeeded in convincing Trump to get rid of the ultranationalist Bannon (as they view him), so Congress will work with Trump in achieving a more rational legislative agenda. These, of course, have no concept that there is a much deeper meaning to all of this.
I take that back to some extent. They do have a strangely twisted thought process that touches on Bible prophecy yet to unfold.
Bannon, it seems, according to a number of these pundits, has an apocalyptic view of the world. He believes that Trump and America somehow are destined to be involved in world history as it winds up.
The media types who purport this to be the case don’t go far into this accusation. That is, they don’t give us details about how Mr. Bannon’s end-times view might possibly have affected any outcome he personally desired to achieve while advising the president.
It is indeed strange…the secular media types sensing and commenting that there is some weird connection to apocalyptic matters in all of these goings-on.
There is such visceral hatred for this president that when anything bad happens, his enemies in media and everyone else find ways to link Trump to the evil involved. For example, this was the case in the recent white supremacist activities and the clashes over confederate statues in Charlottesville. Trump’s statements on the matters involved were made to look by mainstream news types like the president took the side of the KKK and the neo Nazis. Anyone who actually heard the president’s remarks knows the opposite is true. He plainly called out the evil. But, he made the mistake of saying there was evil on both sides. That gave the haters all the fodder needed to link him directly to the skinheads and all the rest. In the same sense, Steve Bannon is linked by the mainstream news types to a mindset like the Ayatollahs who want to bring on their version of the apocalypse. That is as deeply into Bannon’s “apocalyptic” worldview of geopolitics as they wish to delve. If they can make that linkage in the mind of the American voters–the evil of Steve Bannon to the Iranian religious madmen–their mission is achieved. Evil that lurks within the mainstream media as it currently exist, in my view, is the real linkage to the chaos now being perpetrated. It is luciferian. It is part of the Saul Alinsky blueprint–being utilized by the George Soros-globalist types–to bring America down so her power to influence is diminished. So her wealth can be redistributed to the have-nots in order to secure power bases for the globalists constructing the changed world order they desire.
There seems to me something boiling beneath the obvious–Bannon’s being dismissed from Trump’s advisory team in the White House. I have no idea of what that might be. Steve Bannon made the following statement shortly after leaving his post: “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.” Bannon said further, “We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over.”
He said also, his statement unfortunately laced with profanity, that he was going to fight the globalists every step of the way. Well, you had better have the Lord at your side in that effort, Mr. Bannon. The globalists–knowingly or unknowingly–have the most powerful being ever to be created as their leader. Lucifer the fallen is determined to prepare the planet for the coming of his man of sin.
There is no political strategy–even by a top strategist like yourself–that can alter Satan’s plan for his Antichrist regime.
But the Lord did so–and with ease–in this last presidential election. He is still in complete control. Trump is God’s man for this troubled hour as we move swiftly toward the Rapture of the church.
Meantime, it is much prayer by God’s people that is the primary Tool that must lead the fight against the globalists. Prophetically speaking, the battle is already won!
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. (Psalms 2:4-9)
Noah and Antichrist’s Hypnotists–Part 1
In 2014, Noah did what many Christians hoped it would not do in the movie’s first weekend in the theaters. It was far and away the most watched, beating out the second- place entry, which had led to that point. Noah knocked off Divergent, grossing more than $44 million at the box office, as compared to Divergent’s $22.6 million, according to studio estimates from Rentrak.
Despite calls by a number of ministries for a boycott of Darren Aronofsky’s film, moviegoers turned out in proverbial droves to see what the hoopla is all about. The hoopla, itself, generated greater interest than otherwise would have arisen to give the filmmaker the ticket-sales victory that was achieved. A number of critics, professional and otherwise, predicted at the time that the movie, after the big box office in its week of release, would be the big loser in the second week of its run and beyond. This prediction is based upon the opinion of those making the forecast that Bible-believing people who flocked to the theaters were so turned off by the film’s hit piece on God and Noah that the word will spread and subsequent days of the run will suffer immensely.
I remember back then not being so certain… I must preface this essay by saying that this is a blind guy writing about a movie he never saw, and whose sound track he’s not even heard to this day. I haven’t “seen” a movie–or anything else—in more than twenty years, due to retinas that no longer function. So, I must offer analysis based upon what others who have, in fact, seen the film are saying about it. In that regard, I assure that I have read everything of pertinence, by way of reviews, that I can find.
Before you delete from your cyberspace files my effort, however, I will tell you that I possess/offer perhaps some small degree of gravitas in the matters involved in the Genesis story of Noah.
I have written or coauthored somewhere around thirty books, many of which deal in-depth and directly with the story of the Flood and with the Genesis chapter 6 account of what really happened during that antediluvian time. I say “what really happened,” because what I’ve learned from the plethora of reviews of Aronofsky’s Noah–both religious and secular reviews–is that it diverges from the real story so greatly as to defy any claim the movie makers had to this being a Bible-based film. As a matter of fact, the movie might have better been called Divergent, the name of the film it dethroned during its debut weekend.
All of that said, this is not an opinion piece on the many literal aspects of the making of this Hollywood version of what happened during those pre-Flood times. We should expect no more or less than what the movie-going masses got from the world’s glitter capital for their big-ticket bucks. What is crucial, in my view, is to try to dissect the intricacies of what was going on with this film and what has gone on since with all other efforts to inculcate this generation.
We–Americans in particular—are face to face with Ephesians 6:12–the battle that’s not with flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities in high places. It is spiritual warfare of the first order as we rage toward the end of this decaying age.
The same supernatural entities that caused the Lord to finally have to destroy all flesh in the Flood of Noah’s day are at their nefarious work at this very moment. They are doing all within their considerable power to reeducate, inculcate, hypnotize each and every individual on the planet who hasn’t put on the whole armor of God.
Sadly, that is an enormous number of human beings–a massive majority of people who don’t know Jesus Christ as Savior. Perhaps even more depressing is the fact that this great number of people who aren’t prepared to stand against Satan’s last-days assault because they haven’t been fortified by their pastors and teachers in their churches includes Christians. They haven’t been trained to fight the spiritual battles they face, using God’s armor, given in Ephesians 6:11-18. Neither are they aware of the devices being used to attack them.
We are witnessing at this late hour in man’s Church-Age history plans by the supreme enemy being laid at every juncture. None of his schemes are cleverer than the preparation he is laying for what comes next in the battle of good versus evil.
We will look deeply into this scheme next week–Lord willing.
Ezekiel 38-39 and Nukes
Today’s sense of impending nuclear exchange hearkens somewhat back to when I was a teenager. I remember sitting in the high school library looking at a daily newspaper. The headline was about Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premiere, threatening the use of hydrogen bombs if his plans for eastern Europe were resisted by the West.
Rumor had it amongst us high schoolers that nuclear war would commence on this particular Friday I was in the library thinking on such possibility. The world would end this very day, so the tale was told.
I guess I was sort of into issues and events of the times, just as I am these many decades later. Although a kid, I was concerned, but certainly couldn’t let on to my fellow students–especially not my macho pals, who all were saying “bring it on” to the Ruskies.
They seemed to have no fear or regard for what would happen if ol’ Khrushchev decided to nuke America. I did think about it and was, frankly, quite worried.
Now we have a 30-year-old, north Korean despot even uglier than was Nikita, threatening to send his newly developed, nuclear-tipped missiles to Guam and even to somewhere within the U.S. homeland. I haven’t paid much attention during the current “crisis” to the threat, even though issued by a true lunatic rather than the calculating, totally aware Khrushchev–i.e., the Soviet dictator realized what it would mean for him, personally, should he be so foolhardy as to initiate nuclear war. I’m not certain Kim Jong-un has the same degree of realization.
Being three-quarters of a century old currently might make the difference in my degree of concern–then, in 1958, versus now. Even though sense of my own mortality at 16 was almost nonexistent, I was fearful. The present threat has many people today thinking like I did back then. The current nuclear threat doesn’t concern me at all, although my knowledge of my own mortality now is with me every waking hour.
What’s the difference in the young Terry’s concern and the old Terry’s lack thereof, do you think? It must be more than merely naïveté about geopolitical, diplomatic interaction that might bring on or avert nuclear catastrophe that caused me at 16 to worry. It can’t just be that I can now, through reasoning ability guided by experience, assuage fear because I’m much wiser at this advanced age about how nuclear-armed states always pull up short of using those weapons of mass destruction.
One thing sure…I have no such confidence in those human agents who have their fingers on the nuclear triggers. I have no doubt whatsoever that one day those triggers will be pulled.
Preparation is underway in every direction one looks. Nuclear war is looming like the mystical Sword of Damocles over this powder-keg world.
Pakistan and India threaten each other with their nuclear stockpiles. The big, nuclear-muscle boys–America, China, and Russia–look warily at each other through satellite-computer guardians 24/7.
Israel stands ready at all times to invoke the Samson Option. If it looks like the use of nuclear weapons is all that will stop an attack that would mean the end of the Jewish state, they will go to any such length necessary.
And this brings us to the title of our commentary today: Ezekiel 38-39 and Nukes.
Iran stands on the brink of developing nuclear capability even more threatening than that of the North Koreans. Previous U.S. presidential administrations–particularly those of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama–made “deals” they promised would make the whole world safer from nuclear proliferation–from nuclear war. The deals they made with both North Korea and with the Iranian regimes, however, have brought us to now having to act perhaps precipitously, or else face certain nuclear war in the not-too-distant future.
Iran, as Bible prophecy students know, is the nation that occupies that area that was ancient Persia. Persia is foretold by the prophet Ezekiel to mount an all-out assault against Israel as part of the Gog-Magog coalition.
It is strongly expected that North Korea has provided the Iranians with nuclear warheads or with the technology necessary to produce nuclear weapons. Iran is far advanced in missile technology and it is only a matter of time until they will be able to fit nuclear warheads to those missiles–presuming they haven’t done so already.
The Trump administration has led the way in imposing sanctions on Iran to stop development of their missile program. If it can’t be halted, Israel will almost certainly at some point take military action to try to destroy Iran’s nuclear development capability.
America’s most recent action has caused the Iranian regime to ramp up its call for the destruction of America and Israel. The following tells of that rogue nation’s anger:
DUBAI – Iran’s parliament gave initial approval on Sunday to a bill to boost spending on Tehran’s missile program and the elite Revolutionary Guards in retaliation for new sanctions imposed by the United States.
Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the outlines of the bill to “counter America’s terrorist and adventurist actions” as some chanted “Death to America,” the state broadcaster IRIB reported.
The measure came in retaliation to legislation passed by US Congress and signed by US President Donald Trump in early August to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program. (“Iran eyes more funds for missiles, troops after US sanctions-Middle East,” Jerusalem Post, 8/13/17)
With one of the primary Gog-Magog force members about to go nuclear, there should be reason for greatly increased worry. Like the North Koreans, they are a regime blood-vowed to destroy its enemy. In the case of North Korea, it is South Korea–and America–that constitutes the enemies that inspire the blood vow. With Iran, of course, it’s Israel and America that must be obliterated.
However, in the case of Iran, we know from prophecy that they are going to act on their blood-oath. In North Korea, if they are a factor in bringing the world to nuclear Armageddon, it will be much later, in consort with the “kings of the east” of Revelation chapters 9 and 16.
So, why am I the calm (old) Terry as opposed to the 16-year-old, fearful Terry in the high school library, reading magazines and newspapers instead of studying in study hall? The danger is imminently more grave now than then.
The answer, of course, is Bible prophecy. The old Terry knows and believes what God’s Word has to say about what will be the outcome of all this nuclear saber-rattling.
Bible prophecy tells me that Iran is not destroyed by the time of the God-Magog attack, which is yet future. Israel is not destroyed at that time–or ever.
Bible prophecy tells me that Iran, Russia, Turkey, and all the others of that force come in a conventional –not nuclear attack. Something has obviously happened by that time to cause nuclear weaponry to not be used–at least not in a world-rending way.
The other nations, we are told by Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39, are there, too. They send only a diplomatic note of protest when they see that great, satanic, Gog-led force descend toward Israel. Nuclear weaponry, again it is obvious, hasn’t yet been used in a world-destroying way by that time.
Again, Jesus said it will be business as usual at the time of His “revealing.” That is, people will be doing business as usual, according to the Lord’s Days of Noah/Days of Lot prophecy (Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30). At the time of the Rapture, therefore, there will have been no world-shattering nuclear conflict–or major catastrophic event on a global scale, either.
If only that worried, 16-year-old Terry had studied Ezekiel 38-39 in that study hall in 1958…
Terry James Prophecy Line 