God’s prototype nation continues to point the way into prophesied, troubled times. Jesus said it would eventuate in the worst times of all human history (Luke 21: 25). Jeremiah the prophet called it the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30: 7).

Just as the Lord’s dealing with His chosen people throughout millennia past, the cause for His dealing in the future with Israel revolves around the same problem: The people have forgotten Him. They depend upon strange gods–upon others—for their protection and salvation.

While Israel’s modern leadership recognizes only military power as central to the nation’s defense, they nonetheless seem to propose miraculous protective measures that almost mimic Old Testament acts of the God they no longer depend upon for their peace and safety.

The following news item is an interesting development in this regard, I think you will agree.

On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that Israel will be fast-tracking the development of a laser defense system that will be used to defend against attacks from Gaza and Hezbollah. The lasers, using an autonomous detection and tracking system, will superheat drones and rockets which the developers claim will catch on fire within a few seconds. The system will supplement the Iron Dome that operates against short-range projectiles with the lasers concentrating on smaller projectiles.

The Defense Ministry said the laser uses a “highly advanced optical targeting system, with tracking capabilities and artificial intelligence” to locate a target “at highly precise levels of accuracy.”

Israel also uses David’s sling-and-arrow systems against long-range ballistic missiles.

“Within a year already the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will bring into action a laser-based interception system, first experimentally, and later operationally, first in the south, then in other places,” he said in a speech at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “And this will enable us, as the years advance, to surround Israel with a wall of lasers which will protect us from missiles, rockets, UAVs and other threats.”

The new laser-based system will drastically reduce the cost of defending against the frequent rocket attacks that target Israeli cities… The Iron Dome systems deployed around Israel to protect its cities cost $50 million per battery and $100,000–150,000 per interception. Hamas fires low-tech missiles that are inexpensive and inaccurate. (“Wall of Lasers; A ‘Biblical Pillar of fire’ that protected Israelites from Egypt” by  by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, 2/2/22, Biblical News)

The story of the modern “miracle” continues, with one of Israel’s rabbis weighing in.

When he heard of the innovation, Rabbi Aryeh Weingarten was unsurprised.

“Innovations and inventions are simply the mind of Man reflecting the aspect of God that is in nature,” he said. “Bennett’s vision of a ‘wall of lasers’ is a reflection of the Biblical pillar of fire that accompanied the Children of Israel in their Exodus, protecting the Jews from Egyptian arrows.”

The Israel Bible described the pillar in a manner that modern missile defense systems would do well to emulate:

According to Rashi, the pillar of cloud that led the Jewish people in the desert during the day moved behind the camp, and obscured the Egyptians’ vision as they progressed in their bloodthirsty pursuit of the Jewish people. The cloud protected Israel as they fled and absorbed the arrows shot by the Egyptians at the fleeing nation. Today, the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces are a pillar of defense, shielding Israel from her enemies. May the God of Israel continue to protect His people through His modern-day pillar of defense, just as He did long ago. (Ibid.)

It might be easy to give God glory for protecting His chosen nation in providing this modern warfare capability. However, the nation as a whole–particularly Israeli governmental and military leaderships—has all but replaced the God of their salvation with their own efforts in producing “miracle” weaponry and defense systems. Sadly, the price will yet have to be paid for the nation’s usurpation of the miraculous power of Israel’s God.

The following is a stunning heavenly opinion of this chosen nation when it casts its God to the side.

And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. ²For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. (Deuteronomy 32:20–35)

This condemnation of Israel is what will bring on the Tribulation. God will call the nation back to Himself through great trouble–Jacob’s trouble. But a remnant will turn to their true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will restore His people and make them the head of all nations in the Millennial Kingdom.

Just imagine, based upon this condemnation of the fifth Book of Moses turned toward God’s chosen people, what awaits the Tribulation-world of earth dwellers the rebels totally turned against Israel’s God!

You don’t want to be part of that world destined for God’s wrath and judgment. Here, once again, is how to become right with that God, who sent His son to die for our redemption.

That 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)

My friend Dr. J. R. Church used to end every TV program in Prophecy In the News with the words: “Keep looking up!” He was referring, of course, to Jesus’ command in Luke 21:28:

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

While the Lord was, without question, talking about being vigilant in watching for all the conditions He said would be prevalent as His time to call His Church to Himself neared, and, indeed, was pointing to His Second Advent, it is perhaps less than a stretch to ask if He was doing one more thing. Was He also alluding to the prophetic signal He mentioned a few verses previous?

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. (Luke 21: 25a)

It is a worthy question, considering recent developments. Strange things are going on in the heavenlies, with interest stirred almost weekly with new signs discovered in the region of the sun, moon and stars.

There is more than good reason to be concerned enough to “look up” with regard to signs in the heavens.

Our friend Dr. Thomas Horn of SkyWatch TV has presented a number of programs pointing to astronomical reports from scientists that predict an asteroid of earth-devastating size coming our way. The space rock the size of a stadium, termed Apophis, is on track to possibly impact the earth April 13, 2029. Horn has conjectured whether this could be the space object prophetically scheduled to crash into an ocean during the Tribulation. Such an impact would certainly cause great destruction and cause the death of millions.

More recently, scientists are changing their estimated trajectory-predictions to say that this visitor from deep space might only be detrimental to satellites orbiting earth, thus disrupting the planet’s communications, etc.

This seems a ludicrous conclusion, considering an asteroid of such monumental size. I’m no astronomer or otherwise an expert, but something this big coming this close seems to me to be a cause of possible danger dwarfing the mere disruption of communication by knocking out a few satellites.

And signals from space continue to grab attention of scientists, who seem genuinely baffled. Here’s one story:

A team led by astronomers in Australia has discovered a brand new type of object in deep space that behaves in bizarre and mysterious ways never seen before.

Something about 4,000 light-years away, which is relatively close in our cosmic neighborhood, was seen spinning around and regularly blasting out a massive burst of energy that lasts a full a minute. Even weirder, that bright beam of radiation occurred like clockwork every 18 minutes.

“It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that,” astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker said in a statement.

The behavior is similar to that of a pulsar or magnetar, which spin around as they blast out pulses of energy that can be detected here on Earth. But pulsars pulse very quickly, usually every few seconds. An object that sends out longer bursts just a few times an hour has never been seen before. (“Astronomers spy powerful deep-space object unlike anything seen before,” CNET, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)

Just as deep-space signals are ramping up interest by the scientists who say they are “spooked” by things they’re seeing, the whole UFO thing is being opened up by those in government who have always been desperate to put a cap on such information.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is finally getting back into the UFO business.

And depending on which UFO believer you ask, it’s either a historic step forward to getting to the bottom of conspiracies or a ploy to regain control of the narrative — and possibly even prepare for interplanetary war.

The establishment of a new office, signed into law just before New Year’s, to study “unidentified aerial phenomenon” has divided the loose community of activists, researchers and pseudo scientists who hunt for proof that we are not alone in the universe.

Some hail the legislation creating the new office, tucked into section 1683 of the massive National Defense Authorization Act, for bringing new resources, rigor and officialdom to the investigation of a phenomenon — and a potential national security threat — that has long been stigmatized in a way that makes it difficult to study. (“ Historic step forward or cover-up plot? Pentagon’s new UFO office splits ufologists,” Alex Seitz-Wald, 1/8/22, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)

With all this “looking up” by scientists and government, there must be something up, so this generation should be “looking out.”

Just as the powers that be have set in motion the machinery of generating fear through the microbial world of virus pandemic, so, too, I’m of the cynical opinion, they are beginning to raise the fear factor in pointing us to things to come from somewhere above.

I’ve pointed before to the thought that the “great delusion” of 2 Thessalonians 2 might involve the lie that extraterrestrial visitors will come to rescue us from planetary disaster. These will, the lie will include, be called down from space by the false prophet. In actuality, it might well be that Satan and his evil hordes are being ejected from the heavenlies for the final time in the war they have lost with God’s angelic forces.

Regardless of how it all plays out, it is time for all believers to be looking up, while “watching” all going on around us, for our redemption—our Lord and Savior—must certainly be drawing near!

I want to make it exceedingly clear that I consider myself neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet in the Old Testament sense. However, I believe that in these times as we see the Tribulation closing in like a tightening vice, all who earnestly “watch” developments –including yours truly– can qualify in some sense, under God’s definition of what constitutes a prophet. Since we are all commanded to “watch”, according to Jesus Himself, we who are believers have the command to be prophets in the sense of forth telling. That is forth telling, not foretelling. We are to observe the times –the issues and events of our times, and then to compare to Bible prophecy to see if there is prophetic relevance as we see the time of fulfillment of Christ’s return approaching. We are then to tell others –to warn others that time of fulfillment is nearing.

Jesus said the following: “And what I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch.” (Mark 13: 37)

In regard to the above lead into this commentary, I say without apology that I believe the following Old Testament Truth applies in some sense to each believer who today sincerely tries to discern these strange times.

“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealed his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3: 7)

The Lord –because He has Given us His complete Word, the Bible– no longer gives the power to foretell (predict the precise occurrence of an event or something other yet in the future). However, He expects us to be discerning enough through Bible study, prayer and observation of the times to forth tell matters involved in order to forewarn. I’m of the belief that we are being given prophetic indicators as in no other times in modern history.

For example, as we have forth told many times, all of Israel’s Gog-Magog enemies listed in Ezekiel 38 and 39 are now gathered north of God’s chosen nation. The coalition of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others have coalesced. At some point those nations will, as God has Foretold, rush in storm-like fashion toward Israel.

We have forth told this reality in order to forewarn of where this generation stands on God’s Prophetic Timeline.

In the same sense we have forth told our prayerful, studied, observations that the minions, both human and demonic of Ephesians 6: 12 are at work in these closing moments of the age. Those powers and principalities are so obviously in process of trying to bring Satan’s one-world regime into being that it cannot be missed by the believer who is doing what Christ has commanded –to watch these developments in these troubling times.

Again, I’m neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet (although my Daddy was a pretty wise fellow). But I must be true to the commission I believe the Lord has given us as believers. –To watch with prayerful study and observation developments I discern to be on the prophetic horizon.

This brings us to the title of the commentary: In Antichrist’s Shadow.

The stage-setting is in every direction one looks for the son of perdition to leap onto the end times platform. Many control mechanisms have been carefully and methodically formed and put into position for the rise of the wicked one of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Of course, he cannot appear as long as we, believers, are still on the planet. But like in all things of prophetic import, the long shadows of coming evil darkens these times so near the consummation of human history. Antichrist’s long shadow precedes his coming to power once the Church, indwelt by the Holy Spirit are Called into the air in that glorious instant promised through the Apostle Paul.

One of those long shadows we see each and every day as times get ever darker is the so-called pandemic. The lockdowns, the mandates, the insane rants and raves of those who want imprisonment and even death to come to those who refuse the vaccination demands are red lights of warning. The forth telling prophets –believers who want to alert –to forewarn of the coming man of sin—are duty bound to flash those red lights before a world going down the broad road to destruction scheduled for the Tribulation.  

It is with this matter of desiring to forewarn further that I, like many, point to an interesting development on the geopolitical scene.

Emanuel Macron, president of France is a most fascinating character, as we consider these times so near the dénouement of this Age of Grace.

His name means God with us, as many know. It was one of the names Bible prophets said Jesus, Himself, would be called centuries before He came to earth as a baby. This fact alone is sufficiently interesting to make a forth telling believer focus in laser-like fashion. –Or at least it should be so.

This man who will soon assume the presidency of the European Union, as its France’s turn, is thought by some in his orbit to be a genius. –a genius who always manages to get his way. His charm, they claim can and does disarm his enemies with relative ease.

His history, as given by some who apparently have made an in-depth study into his background indicates a more esoteric pathway as he began his rise to power.

One report gives the view that is less than flattering to the young, mercurial, French leader.

Psychiatrist Adriano Sagatori, who says he has studied the biography of the French President, described Mr. Macron as a psychopath who he said would not fight for the French people.

“Like all psychopaths, he believes in his higher purpose. Macron does not love France and will not fight for the French people,” Sagatori said. (Emmanuel Macron labeled ‘psychopath who hates France’ in Russian media | The Independent | The Independent)

My friend Matt Ward, who wrote an in-depth article on the French president, reported that information he gathered presented the following conclusion by the psychiatrist.

Sagatori concludes, ominously, by summing up who he believes Macron really is clinically, in view of his psycho-social profile: “So we are confronted with three paradigms that define a certain type of personality; 1) the idea that there exist no limits; 2) a feeling of omnipotence from childhood, but even more so in adulthood; 3) a narcissism that can accurately be defined as malevolent.” (Emmanuel Macron by Matt Ward, raptureready.com)

All this to say that the coming Antichrist’s shadow is already forecasting truly evil times just ahead.

Will Emmanuel Macron be that beast of Revelation 13? I don’t know. That wicked prince that shall come won’t be revealed this side of the Rapture. But looking at this man gives the believer who is a prayerful, studied, observer reasonable latitude to conclude that while we don’t know, we can’t say that we haven’t a clue.

When looking upon the cultural and societal horizon, it’s hard to avoid the questions: How did things get this way so quickly? Where is it all taking us? When will we reach that destination?

My thoughts include the query: How very confusing and troubling—even terrifying—must it be to those who don’t have Bible prophecy as a basis for pondering all of these things? But then comes the reality of the human condition. It is obvious that the great majority of humanity moves through life without paying much attention to matters engulfing them, except and until their lives collide with calamitous circumstances. I’m referring to such circumstances as the so-called pandemic and its many variations. Humanity, at such time, accepts wholeheartedly, even clamors for, such things as unproven, experimental vaccines.

Christians join the majority of humanity who doesn’t give a thought to what all this demand by the powers that be means—demands that everyone on the planet take the jab.

This is not to rail against the vaccines themselves. And I write other than to criticize Christians and non-Christians for jumping on the globalist vaccination train, although I believe there are biblical reasons for addressing the egregious error wrapped up in the matters involved. But we will reserve such reasoning for subsequent commentaries.

What I do wish to address is the ease with which most all of humanity—including those who claim Christianity as their belief system—move along in herd-like lockstep toward a destination of which all are oblivious. They are pushed and prodded along by the elite and evil powers and principalities of Ephesians 6:12, as I’ve pointed out many times.

Some finally come out of their trance-like states to suddenly realize things have changed desperately. Their world—their circumstance—has seemingly suddenly altered, and they no longer recognize it. And now the wickedness that surrounds them engulfs them, and seems to have no remedy. The only result of their movement, unrealized while they were in transit, is lockdown by draconian would-be masters.

It is at such times that God’s cup of wrath is full nearly to the brim. This is a horrifying place for any generation to occupy.

We remember the people of Noah’s day in antediluvian times when God regretted that He had made mankind. We recall Sodom and Gomorrah, when every sort of wickedness had come into play. We were given the story of Nineveh, and its people the Lord spared from His certain wrath to come if repentance wasn’t forthcoming.

We look at the terrible, sexually depraved city of Pompeii, and suppose with good reasons that the Lord’s cup of wrath had overflowed as surely as did Vesuvius on that fateful day.

In each of these judgments, the people had, through full-bore compliance or through acquiescence, become willing participants in the rebellion against the Creator God of Heaven. The results were catastrophic—even for Nineveh at a time when that city’s evil once more filled God’s cup of wrath and brought about His wrath.

Again, looking upon the cultural and societal horizon of our times, we might wonder how quickly things got this messed up. They got this way the same way all other societies and cultures reached their tipping points—their world steeped in such evil that it filled God’s cup of wrath, bringing catastrophic judgment.

A recent news item gives but one insult to the Creator. The insult, of course, is compounded exponentially by too many instances to list.

A new law, put in place on Saturday in Canada, is causing concern that it may criminalize the dissemination of the Bible.

The concern is that Bill C-4, the Act to amend the Criminal Code-conversion therapy, defines conversion therapy in overly broad terms. The definition set out in the bill read as follows:

“A practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change a person’s gender identity or gender expression to cisgender or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour or non-cisgender gender expression.”

The new law expressly forbids practices, treatments, or services designed to change or repress a person’s gender expression to align with their biological sex…

Rev. Dr. Aaron Rock, pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Windsor, Ontario, notes: “In Canada, the teachings of both basic biology and the Bible are now ‘myths’, according to the preamble to Bill C-4 (conversion therapy bill)… This isn’t about protecting people from harm, it’s about the state playing the role of God. And, not a single MP objected to it, including several that claim to be Christian.” (“Canadian Christians Fear New Law Will Criminalize Bible,” Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Biblical News, 1/9/22)

As I say, the anti-God actions by government and humanity as a whole would fill volumes. Meantime, those who believe there is a God, but who don’t know Him, say He is a “God of love” and would never bring judgment and wrath.

If those who say this could talk to the people of Samuel’s day, well, let the scriptural account speak for itself.

Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. (1 Samuel 5:1–3)

How horrendous it will be when God must pour His righteous judgment from that full-to-the-brim cup of wrath. And this generation of lost individuals who occupy planet earth are facing the Lord’s fury. Jesus said it will be a time worse than has ever been or will ever again be (Matthew 24:21).

Thankfully, God’s wrath is still filling into that terrible cup. We must alert our fellow Christians who don’t have a clue, but who are mixed within that herd being pushed and prodded along by the minions of Ephesians 6:12.

Those believers will be spared, but those who surround them who don’t know Jesus Christ for salvation will feel the full force of God’s holy wrath. Everyone who reads these posts should be personal evangelists. Forewarn those around you of the wrath to come if repentance and acceptance of God’s way of escape aren’t forthcoming.

Again, here is that way of escape:

That 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)

Any observer of these strange times from the preTrib view of Bible prophecy can do no other than conclude that the wicked powers and principalities in high places of Ephesians 6: 12 are at work.

Concerning one major section of this work being done by the minions in that stratosphere of evil, I find the following conclusion by a writer quite on the mark.

(1) COVID-1984 Bringing the Great Reset’s Conquest

The Chinese Flu may be a minor pestilence, but after two years of scientific dictatorship taking hold around the world, it is clear that the lockdowns, small business devastation, church closures, and punishments for disobeying arbitrary and capricious mandates devised by petty tyrants have all been about conditioning national populations to accept total government control over their lives. Plain and simple: Governments love the virus they have taught the world to fear. It is their weapon of choice for initiating, in their own words, a “Great Reset” that allows them to conquer free nations and remake them into slave states mastered by a small coterie of the fantastically wealthy and politically powerful. (Source: The Four Horsemen of the Left’s Artificial Apocalypse, J.B. Shurk, American Thinker.com, January 7, 2022)

The minions in high places determined to bring about the new global order have, of course, been setting the stage –or attempting to do so— for decades. They concentrated on first global warming, then climate change, when Manhattan and other places failed to succumb to the ocean waters rising from melting Artic ice as predicted. It seems that they concocted the idea of adding global pandemic to their one-world design and implemented the blueprint in 2020 to begin the process of controlling us and channeling us into planetary lockdown.

Their main thrust in implementing their plan to reset Planet Earth in their own image remains forcing everyone into a Mother Earth worship. This is an unending movement despite the fact that most of earth’s population isn’t concerned to any great extent. The masking and vaccines are much greater fear producers than the climate horrors predicted, it seems. So, the minions are full bore in demanding that the vaccinated turn against those who don’t want to take the jab.

People across the world, for the most part, ignore the dire warnings, despite the likes of the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg being used as the megaphone alarmist proclaiming earth is doomed. The distance between the rational mind and the fear-mongering mind of the globalist provocateurs is stark. The American Thinker presents an excellent contrast in this regard.

Most journalists, the U.N., Kerry, Greta, Biden, educators, entertainers, environmentalists, and other Democrats say the science is settled.  They say it is proven that humans, CO2, fossil fuels, and automobiles cause warming.  They say the warming is causing the ice to melt, and coastal cities will soon be gone.  They say we need to stop using fossil fuels because there are only a few years left to stop the warming.  Somehow, they also pretend more people die from a little warmth than the cold.  Evidence hasn’t mattered for a long time when they are pushing their agenda to destroy the economy.

On the other hand, people with the ability to use logic and reason will say that there is no correlation between populations, fossil fuel use, CO2 content, and temperature.  They will say truthfully that the climate has always changed cyclically and naturally.  Sometimes it is cold; sometimes it is warm.  Sometimes we have droughts, and sometimes we have rain and floods.  Sometimes we have less snow, and sometimes we have more snow.  Some years are stormier than others.  They understand that fossil fuels have greatly improved the quality and length of life for those who use them.

In other words, people who can use logic and reason follow the facts.  People who are pushing the leftist agenda to remake and destroy America don’t care about the facts.

Regardless of ideological differences in the matter of earth’s ecology, weather, etc., God’s Word indicates man can neither save nor destroy the planet.

“The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.  For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.” (Psalm 24: 1-2)

I recommend that one read the complete article above, which includes facts and fallacies about COVID and what’s going on as well as facts about the climate change delusion, to understand clearly truth vs lie in the Luciferian plans to bring on the Antichrist regime.

It seems to me that dynamics taking place in Europe, with regard to the dictatorial demands of the likes of French President Emmanuel Macron of France in effect controlling all activity with mandates, shows how near the world might be to the man of sin being revealed. Before the Antichrist steps into the spotlight, we can be assured believers in Jesus Christ will be with their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a Glorious prospect if you are in God’s Eternal Family!