Academia, it is becoming more apparent each day, is serving as the devil’s workshop. Specifically, for example, Yale University is being sought out to serve as the devil’s operating room for carrying out an excision of truth in an area that is most troubling to him in restricting his end of days stratagem.

A report I received the past week from a friend and fellow watchman on the wall immediately impressed scriptural implication upon my spiritual senses.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be… Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof… (2 Tim 3: 1-2a, 5: 1a)

My friend’s email provided two letters to the editor that were recently sent to his local newspaper. He lives in Connecticut, near Yale University, the curriculum of which is the target of the letter writer’s proposals.

The letters to the editor, I’m of the opinion, encapsulated a stratagem of the old serpent I have for some time been observing. He seeks desperately to destroy the true, unvarnished witness of the veracity of God’s word. Key to his strategy seems to be the mixing in of biblical truth with the false religions of the world. On some levels it appears that he is having success.

Lucifer has “enlightened” (seduced) the world’s religionists to a large extent to his seductive whispers proclaiming God is love. Anyone who denies that God is love must be put within the theologically and politically correct detention camp—the gulag—where haters must be dealt with appropriately. Anyone who claims that God condemns is a hater, a bigot, a person filled with an inhuman phobia of one sort or the other.

All within humanity are on the heavenly highway to salvation, no matter their sin—which, in fact, Satan whispers, doesn’t exist. That is, all are on that salvation highway except those who insist there is but one way to redemption—to Heaven. Such are haters, who preach that God is judgmental—that He is vindictive and vengeful.

The Bible and other “holy books” show—Satan whispers to the theologically and politically correct—that God is only love. The parts that indicate that the Christian Bible’s God judges humanity for sin other than the sin of failing to take care of the physical needs of fellow man is to be disregarded—to be spiritualized as meaning something other than what the hate-filled bigots who hold to the fundamental, evangelical view say it means.

This is the surgery Satan is attempting to perform—cleaving the love portion of religiosity from the judgmental. And, this brings us to the letters to the editor concerning that prestigious academic institution, Yale University.

The writer, from Vermont, is, he informs, a former student of Yale’s School of Theology. He points to apocalyptic prophecy as the primary reason for all of mankind’s problems today. That a loving God would condemn anyone to suffer eternal punishment…well…let’s let his own words explain…

Yale shouldn’t simply change the name of Calhoun College to that of an alumnus who is not a white supremacist. It should re-examine the mission of the Divinity School (where I received a Master of Divinity degree in 1980) which treats eschatology like a benign academic theological category, instead of the dangerous and incendiary belief-system that it is, in whatever religion it appears.

It is not Christianity or Islam which is responsible for many of the mass killings we have seen in my lifetime. It is the unchallenged belief in eschatology (end time; final judgment; apocalypse) which has produced Jim Jones, David Koresh, the Tsarnaev brothers, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, and the San Bernardino husband and wife shooters, all in the last half-century.

It is time for President Peter Salovey’s challenge for Yale to engage in soul searching to be expanded to include the Divinity School on a topic equally as poisonous as institutional racism: the belief that God will punish mankind for not obeying his sacred word, by imposing a final judgment in an end-time of hellfire and torment or of eternal bliss. (Source: Letter to the Editor: Yale needs deeper ‘soul searching’ www.nhregister.com)

The letter to the editor writer later replied to a response given his charge by the dean of Yale’s School of Divinity. The dean explained how Yale and other such institutions were working with the U.N. to “remove all religion as a rationale/cause of extreme violence.” The dean said he wasn’t certain eschatology was the cause of the violence.

The letter writer wrote:

Isn’t Dean Sterling missing the forest for the trees? All religions which include Armageddon belief-systems, throw gasoline on the inflamed minds of wannabe martyrs, terrified of eternal torment and hungry for eternal bliss, from Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana, and David Koresh in Waco, Texas, to the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan in Fort Hood, [Texas], and the husband and wife mass murderers in San Bernardino, California.

Armageddon should be banished from the religious canon as a paranoid delusion, not taught as benign theological embroidery. That would assist “the UN to try to remove religion as a rationale/cause for extreme violence,” as Dean Sterling puts it.

At the least, scholars at Yale’s distinguished divinity school should pursue the truth wherever it leads, without fear. (Source: Letter to the Editor – New Haven Register, January 8, 2016. Eschatology fuels ‘inflamed minds’.)

Lucifer’s attempted surgery is focused in laser-like fashion upon those who present end times matters to the world. The old serpent has a volcanic rage against prophecy from the Bible because such prophecy tolls his soon-coming doom, and because that truth might resonate with anyone who looks around them and sees how world conditions align perfectly with Biblical eschatology. The world today demonstrates the absolute veracity of God’s holy word. Satan has decided on the brilliantly evil tactic of lumping all who preach and teach that truth with the likes of the murderous Mullahs and Jihadists who have as part of their madness to bring on their version of Armageddon so their prophesied Mahdi can rule the caliphate they seek to establish.

Anyone who thus puts forth that there is coming a tribulation and an Antichrist—and God’s judgment for rebellion and sin—are wicked and no different from those raping, murdering and beheading people by the thousands.

It is a stratagem that is working—within academia and even within the pseudo-Christianity held by many of today’s liberal theologians.

God’s love, however, cannot be cleaved from His judgment. It is all part of the same divine plan for the ages. Sin must be dealt with in final judgment so that pure, unadulterated love can reign throughout eternity.

That love is a person, and His is a name like no other name. Jesus Christ is coming to make all things new and righteous. The first phase of that return—the rapture—is on the very brink of taking place. We must not and will not be silent regarding prophetic truth.

I caught the tail-end of a former general saying on FOX News, I paraphrase, “This administration is complicit in prepping the way for World War Three…”

Such a statement from a top military commander who is recently retired grabs one’s attention as few others pontificating on geopolitics can. The retired officer—perhaps one forced from service by this president, I can’t say because I don’t know the circumstance of his leaving the U.S. military— went on to talk about the upheaval in most all of the Middle East caused by American withdrawal in so many key areas of the region. The vacuum created, the general was saying, is setting up the world for a war of unimaginable scope.

Particularly, he was commenting on the growing threats and actions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which has flared following Saudi’s execution of a high profile Shiite cleric and a number of others.

Iran’s response was the takeover of the Saudi embassy building and the looting and ransacking of its contents. The reaction on both sides continues to escalate, dividing Islamic nation from Islamic nation along Shiite/Sunni religious lines, and threatening a war that could spread into a global conflagration, according to the general and other pundits.

President Obama has come under consistent criticism from military officers who have either resigned because of differences with the administration’s way of handling military involvement around the world, or who have been forced out because of conflict with advice offered the president on military matters.

Those retired or resigned officers who continue to criticize Obama’s use of military, and his dealings with America’s and Israel’s destruction-vowed enemies, point to the danger to the nation—and the world—in the administration’s actions, paving the road for Iran to build a nuclear force.

This, they say, is insanity –giving the very Islamists who want to bring on their version of Armageddon the capability to do so through acquiescence to Iran’s demands on nuclear development and their demand that sanctions be lifted, and access given to $150 billion as part of the lifting of those sanctions.

The protest of America’s military experts seems to make no difference whatsoever, any more than did the advice the generals gave in warning the president against first telegraphing the removal of American forces from Iraq, then in actually removing those forces. Such action was all but unprecedented in modern, American, military strategy. The result has been, and continues to be—as predicted by the generals—a power vacuum that is in the process of igniting the whole region in a conflict that is almost certainly unstoppable.

As written about before in this column, Israel remains strangely silent as all of the Arab and Iranian states around the tiny Jewish state begin to burn like a grass fire surrounding a log cabin. But Israel is no such inanimate, ordinary spectator. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF know that Israel is the actual target when these wild men—as the Bible terms them—finally zero in on their most hated enemy. Israel’s trigger finger is on the ultimate weapon and will pull that trigger to defend itself.

Thus there is a cry for peace and safety by the likes of American Secretary of State John Kerry. It is really, however, a demand that Israel be disarmed and marginalized. This is so Kerry’s new friends, the Iranian Mullahs, can have their way, bringing, he and the rest of the world’s diplomatic fools believe, peace at last.

It is arguable to contend that the whole Middle East region would have been far better off if America had never gotten involved there. This is something that is said time and time again by those who want to blame George W. Bush and his father for committing troops to the region in two military actions. This is, at least in part, a mistaken contention, however. The Lord, Himself—it is obvious to students of history, when combined with study of Bible prophecy—determined that the United States would be a major part in the founding of modern Israel and a major physical agent of Israel’s protection.

The current American president and his ideological, leftist bedfellows display the reprobate thinking that comes from anti-God rebellion as forewarned in chapter one of Romans. A prime example of this upside-down lunacy is on display when thinking on the situation in the president’s dealings with both the nation of Iran and with the American people.

In the matter of Iran, Mr. Obama and his ilk indicate they think it is just fine to arm the Armageddon-planning Mullahs with nukes. This, despite the fact these madmen have stated time after time they plan to destroy the great Satan, and the little Satan (America and Israel). At the same time, the president and his leftist, political associates indicate they think it will make America safe by disarming American citizens by the threatened executive action on so-called “gun control.” The Iranian Mullahs can be trusted with nuclear weapons and their delivery systems that can destroy the world, but the American gun-owner can’t be trusted to have a Second Amendment-guaranteed right to own and bear arms.

Such insanity almost certainly is in the process of making our nation culpable in helping bring on man’s final war.

Thankfully, all of this means, as always, that Christ is about to call His church—all born-again believers—to the safe-shelter of their Heavenly home.

It is imperative, therefore, that all who belong to Jesus Christ determine to lift that name that is above every other. Thus, so that many who are lost will be drawn to the Lord. He is the only hope for those who are heading into the worst time in all of human history.

Never in my own memory has a new year appeared at its beginning to be more prophetically interesting. Never–in my thinking, at least–has one portended more perilous times, as the Apostle Paul would have it. Yet I wouldn’t trade my time on this darkening planet with anyone of any other generation.

The fact that the Lord of Heaven has put me here at this strange, ominous, yet immensely fascinating time in history makes it all the more intriguing–even riveting, in terms of wanting to know what happens next. He has put you here, too, at this time when the final curtain  is about to fall. He has trusted you to be an actor in at least part of the final scenes of this great, cosmic play called human history. No illustrious personages of the past–not Julius Caesar, not Napoleon Bonaparte, not Alexander the Great, not even Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or Ronald Reagan were so privileged. We are about to serve as active members of a most especially commissioned cast who populates the end-times stage.

There is about to occur a schism–a separation–of cataclysmic proportion. It will rend one part of humanity from the other. It will not be a natural catastrophe that will inflict the humanity-dividing rift. It won’t be great political upheaval in America and around the world that will cause the tearing apart of life upon the troubled planet. Those things will certainly happen. But it won’t be acts of nature or of man that will bring about the very last scene of the age.

That last act will be orchestrated by the Master Director of all Creation–by the Lord God of Heaven who is the final judge of good and evil.

The excitement presaging that grand climax of the age is building. Momentous events, written on the pages of Holy Scripture, are about to come alive.  The final curtain will rise when Jesus steps out on the clouds of glory and calls all believers–His Bride, the Church, to Himself. If you are a believer in Christ alone for salvation, you will catch the grand finale as you watch from the luxuriant balconies of Heaven.

We see the drama building all around us for the tumultuous scenes set to play out during the times just ahead. The year 2016 is cloaked in the fog of malevolence this world continues to wrap itself in–an increasingly anti-God, anti-Christ vesture that embraces humanism forewarned about by the psalmist.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. (Psalms 2: 1-3)

A quick scan of the news just the past week exposes, I believe, the arrogance of those the Scriptures call “earth-dwellers” who incessantly strive  to break asunder the governance God rightfully placed upon His creation called man. The reports are laden with prophetic indicators.

One such report is seen in the prideful claims by a U.S. State Department spokesman, as the boast involves the increasing call for “peace and safety,” While the situation in Syria grows intensely worse by the hour, with the Syrian people torn violently between the forces of Syrian dictator Basher Al-Assad and the hordes of ISIS murderers, Secretary of State John Kerry is lauded as bringing about a peace that just isn’t happening and will never come to pass.

State Department spokesman John Kirby wrote under the headline, “Bringing peace and security to Syria”: “Under Secretary of State John Kerry’s stewardship the United Nations passed a U.S. sponsored resolution to create a road map for Syria.” Again, the problem is that like in all of the humanistic efforts at bringing true peace, the only “peacemaker” is kept out of the peacemaking. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, is denied at every turn by the president of the very country that speciously purports to be making the peace. (President Obama, remember, upon his very first week in office, proclaimed that the United States is not a Christian nation.)

The president of the United States of America, in effect, proclaimed regarding the governance of the God of Heaven:   “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”

We can believe what that omniscient, omnipotent, governing authority has to say about such arrogance and willfulness. The message is chilling for the planet’s inhabitants who will be left behind when the great schism aforementioned takes place.

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. (Psalms 2: 4-6)

Details of what is about to take place in 2016, of course, lurks in the murkiness of an ever-increasing pall of trepidation. But, for those who are secure within the unshakable, impenetrable shelter of their Lord and Savior, there is no reason to fear. Piercing that black uncertainty is an effulgence that lights the path to the brightest of all possible futures. It is that Blessed Hope of Titus 2: 13!

While we peer into the year 2016 and beyond, using, as always, God’s prophetic Word as a template to place over issues and events of the times, there is on the horizon the growing spectre of global gulag. That is, those who would see to it that the rest of us come under a worldwide system of control are on the rise as at no time since the time of the Tower of Babel recorded in Genesis, chapter 11. The nucleus of the emerging system is one-world economy.

The foundation for that economic engine is and has been in place for some time. The only holdup to its full implementation is the determination of national entities to hold on to sovereignty and autonomy. The United States of America is the chief holdup, as has been pointed out many times. This nation must be brought down as it presently consists into a changed order of monumental proportion so that the other nations will follow suit.

This mandate for change, I’m convinced with all that is within me, continues to be the assignment given this president by the powers and principalities of global governance–the New World Order builders. He has done a stellar job in effecting that change. And, the change continues. The year 2016 is on track to be the most profound era of change ever, if there is no push-back against his all-out effort in the remaining year of this administration.

It appears unlikely that there will be push-back from the likes of the inside-the-Beltway opposition political party. There seems to be a kindred spirit between the parties on giving away America’s sovereignty and autonomy. We offer as evidence the latest global trade deal that passed with relative ease during 2015.

That there is powerful spiritual warfare going on for the heart and soul of this once great nation there is little doubt. We have watched the dismantling of the moral strength of American culture and the infusion of every form of anti-God comportment, made legal through executive action and Supreme Court edict. Congress has rolled over at every point, inexplicably unable and/or unwilling to oppose the transformation this president has achieved, seemingly with great ease.

The churches of America–with the exception of a very few–have offered no push-back against the destruction of America. The days when the likes of the Moral Majority–as hated as it was by the media and the political left–acted as a guardian of the nation’s moral fiber, are long gone. To be frank, it is literally true to say that about the only hope we have is a prayer in the matter of saving our nation.

I believe we are witnessing the most significant movement into the prophesied Antichrist governmental model through the swift changes within international  monetary dynamics taking place. One such movement is making its presence felt as private industry melds with world trade rearrangements we have seen take place this year.

I am the first to admit that I  am basically ignorant in the matters of global finance as they are conducted within the highest echelons. But even the neophyte can see developments that portend a tremendous transformation that will be deleterious to sovereign nations. The following news excerpt gives some idea of the changes afoot.

Several major companies from across both the technology and financial industries—including IBM, Intel, and Cisco as well as the London Stock Exchange Group and big-name banks JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and State Street—have joined forces to create an alternative to the blockchain, the global online ledger that underpins the bitcoin digital currency…

Blockchain is essentially a database that runs across a worldwide network of independent machines—a database that’s controlled by no single entity but can still reliably track the exchange of assets, thanks to some nifty mathematics…

The promise of blockchain technology is that it can provide a more secure, more reliable, more transparent, and more automatic way of exchanging money, securities, and other assets. It lets you trade assets as easily as you trade emails today—and you can trade them without putting your trust in any one person or organization. This could eliminate many of the slower technologies and expensive middlemen that clog up today’s markets, says Marley Gray, who oversees blockchain work at Microsoft. (Cade Metz, “Tech and Banking Giants Ditch Bitcoin for Their Own Blockchain,” WIRED, December 17, 2015)

All of this “private” interlinkage seems so benign and geared for progress in making life better for everyone on the planet, does it not? However when one considers the grasp of most every government on earth to nationalize or place private industry under government controls, the spectre grows ominous.

America’s own grasp in this regard was on display with the federal governmental bankruptcy interventions of such corporate giants as AIG, General Motors, and General Electric. The Obama administration, ostensibly to keep major financial institutions backing these corporations from failure, in effect purchased the assets of the failing companies.

The above news item becomes dangerously relevant in prophetic terms when considering this line from that financial news story: “A database that runs across a worldwide network of independent machines—a database that’s controlled by no single entity.” With governments demonstrably proving that they want to control private industry–even to the point of owning those industries, the drive to destroy sovereignty and autonomy of America, the apex nation of the world, is quite telling.

Antichrist is an “entity” who will one day cause all buying and selling to be done through him–under his number and name (Revelation 13:16-18). Call it blockchain or whatsoever, control by history’s most terrible tyrant is on the way.

Take heart. Jesus Christ is also on His way. He will put an end to the tyrannical control. He will first call all believers to meet Him in the air in one, glorious millisecond. Realizing all of the  developments in the drive for global order going on, we can conclude that that moment must be very near indeed.

Christmas 2015, to me, seems strangely removed from Christmases of the past. By that I mean the culture has changed in America to the point that Jesus is now truly marginalized. He has been, it seems to me, moved by opposition forces to the periphery for the first time in the nation’s history of celebrating His birth. The ambience of the season feels different this time.

News reports tell almost daily of public schools that have changed the name of the season’s celebration to something other than Christmas. Calling it Christmas is forbidden within a growing number of corporate entities and organizations. We must now refer to the season as Happy Holidays rather than as Christmas. People are more and more offended by anything associated with the name of Jesus Christ, or so it seems according to the politically correct–the minority that has been allowed to rule American society over the past number of years.

Christians watched and protested mildly while witnessing Christmas go from a celebration of Christ’s birth to becoming more and more commercialized. The desensitizing messages of the entertainment industry and of the advertising world paved the way to acceptance of the fear of offending spiritual infection we suffer today. Christianity, thus Christmas, represents a narrow-minded, bigoted, homophobic restrictiveness that the post-Christian, “liberated” American need not endure.

Celebration of Christ’s birth was until very recent times an inseparable part of America’s rich heritage. But, as the American home began to  come apart at the seams, the Christmas celebration so much a part of family life suffered a schizophrenia of sorts.

The first coming of  Christ as a babe to  Bethlehem  is now seen by fewer and fewer numbers of U.S. population as something to look back on with reason to celebrate. With the advent of this presidential administration, which began with the new president declaring that we are no longer a Christian nation, the unraveling of America’s moral fabric –already underway–began in earnest. The reweaving of that fabric has been taking place ever since.

Everything Christian is frowned upon, and morality has been redefined. Tolerance is the mantra of the day. Things the Word of God says are wrong, those in control of the reins of  governance declare to be good. The shedding of the blood of the innocent is legally stipulated to be a good thing for the sake of giving women the right to choose. God’s definition of marriage is considered narrow-minded and evil because it restricts the right to “love” as one chooses. Man with man and woman with woman in the sexual union, and in marriage, is lauded and applauded by the neo-pagan culture as proof that we are becoming an enlightened people.

While God’s Son and Christianity are pushed out of society and culture, a false religion, whose worshippers behead and commit other atrocities upon those who won’t bow the knee to their false deity, is given governmental protection at every turn by this president.

Those who continue to make strides to diminish the influence of true Christianity on the culture have celebrated a number of victories through Supreme Court decisions the past seven years. Despite these apparent losses believers in Jesus Christ have suffered in the culture war, the Christian is not defeated. A future celebration is scheduled even more wonderful than is celebration of Christ’s birth two thousand years ago.

The infant who came to earth, sent as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, escaped the infanticide of that day. Herod, Israel’s chief murderer of babies, couldn’t defeat that tiny baby and His mission to provide the only way to redemption. Neither will the abortionists and anti-God forces of today defeat the baby of Bethlehem who is now fully in authority over all of creation and is about to bring God’s kingdom to planet earth.

We who name the Name of Jesus–who are  redeemed by the crucified and resurrected Christ–will one day –perhaps very soon–be called into His presence (Revelation 4:1). He will take us to the Father’s house, where He has prepared mansions in which we will dwell forever (John 14:1-3). That will indeed be a time of eternal celebration!

One priority heads the list that the principalities and powers in high places of Ephesians 6:12 must achieve in order to build the neo-Babel tower of world control. There can be no doubt of what that geopolitical goal is if one truly considers the things going on within the COP (Conference of the Parties) held in Paris November 30 through December 11. That was the twenty-first get-together of the globalist organization whose membership now numbers more than 190 nations.

There declared intention is to establish global agreement on what to do about so-called climate change. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions brought about by human activity. Their proclamation of such danger to the environment through continuing sophistry that includes falsifying data on supposed global warming has been debunked over recent years.

These “de-growth” environmentalist nonetheless continue to shout through their world-wide media accomplices that green house emission-caused global warming will be the thing that will bring an end to planet earth. Thus even though they’ve had to alter their fear-mongering rant to call it “climate change” because of scientific proof to the contrary.

The most recognizable religious figure on the planet is all in, too. Pope Frances, flying on the papal plane when leaving Africa, weighed in when asked to comment on whether anything constructive might come of the COP gathering.

“I’m not sure, but I can say that it is now or never,” he said.

The pope went on to say: “We are on the edge of suicide…but I am sure that just about everybody meeting in Paris is aware of this and wants to do something.”

He concluded:

“The other day I read that in Greenland the glaciers have lost billions of tons… In the Pacific there is a country that is buying another country in order to move, because in 20 years it’s going to disappear. I believe in these people, [the COP leadership] that they will do something. I hope so, and I pray for it.” (Source: “POPE: CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT ‘NOW OR NEVER,’ HUMANITY ON THE ‘EDGE OF SUICIDE’,” Thomas D. Williams, DECEMBER 1, 2015, http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/12/01/pope-climate-change-agreement-now-never-humanity-edge-suicide/). 

The climate change/environmental save-the-planet social engineers intend to change human consumption patterns in every possible way. They intend to reduce private land ownership to the point that all will be forced to live in restricted communal areas. This is what is meant, in part, by the “de-growth” term mentioned above. The ultimate outgrowth of the de-growther plan is to reduce the population of earth to 500 million or less.

Talk show host Mark Levin, in chapter 7 of his recent book Plunder and Deceit, mentions America’s own neo-Babel de-growther in addressing the environmentalist movement:

Much of the so-called environmental movement today has transmuted into an aggressively nefarious and primitive faction. In the last fifteen years, many of the tenets of uto­pian statism have coalesced around something called the “de-growth” movement. Originating in Europe but now taking a firm hold in the United States, the “degrowthers,” as I shall characterize them, include in their ranks none other than President Barack Obama. On January 17, 2008, Obama made clear his hostility toward, of all things, electricity generated from coal and coal-powered plants. He told the San Francisco Chronicle, “You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal . . . under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Recently we have learned they are determined to eventually do away with air-conditioning and other comfort/convenience technologies. We in the West must be brought down to the same level of the Third World societies and cultures. Equality will then be achieved and Utopia established. They will have created their version of heaven on earth.

The real story behind all of this, of course, is the matter of sovereignty.

The plan of the builders of the end-times Tower of Babel know that to begin to achieve their goal of de-growth, the apex nation of the world, America, must be stripped of her sovereignty. The U.S. is the holdup. Europe, the one-time bastion of civilization, has all but given its sovereignty over to the socialistic globalist would-be masters. Now, we are seeing America being channeled into that European model. Sovereignty must be and is being stripped. Barack Hussein Obama has been chosen to be primarily instrumental in the stripping process.

That’s what this climate change mantra and drive is all about. It’s what the incessant call to get the guns out of the hands of average Americans is all about. Sovereignty can be maintained only when it is defended by force. Armed Americans stand in the way. That is what the open borders and invitation to a massive invasion from our south and from the Middle East is all about. No more borders–i.e., no more sovereignty.

But of course all this is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg of impending destruction.

The real sovereignty issue is that of the True Sovereign–the Creator of the universe and of all things. The master of the would-be one-world engineers–the neo-Tower builders- wants, as he did from the time of the war in Heaven- to overthrow the sovereignty of God.

Lucifer the fallen has brought today’s globalists to the  point of the psalmist’s predicted end-of-the -age arrangement.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 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. (Psalms 2:1-6)

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Today, things taking place around the world are thought by many observers to indicate we are at the very end of the age. I am one of those observers.

The Middle East is overheating, with the Russians coming together with Iran to exert strong-arm influence over that prophetic region. All of the activity seems almost certainly to be stage setting for things to come—rearrangement for the great Gog-Magog war predicted by the prophet Ezekiel.

Powerful dynamics within the world’s economy, religion, and geopolitics are at boiling temperature. Potent monetary forces are coalescing to create a central economic system of electronic currency control. The specious theme of climate change is apparently the rallying point around which these one-world fiscal masters intend to concentrate power.

Islam is raging and invading the West, upsetting societies and cultures from Africa to the United States. Fear is building from the ravages of unbridled terrorism running amok. At the same time, Pope Francis is moving throughout the world with his own unique message of encouraging  Christendom to amalgamate with all religions for the cause of peace and love.

Geopolitically, Europe is in flux, buffeted about by destructive societal and economic winds generated by years of  embracing socialistic humanism. Greece, the cradle of Western civilization, as the historians would have it, is at the heart of Europe’s suffering.

It seems more than coincidental, to this observer at least, that  an especially intriguing leader from that very philosophical heart of where Western civilization sprung forth has stepped on the stage of history.

We have looked at him before in this column. I have mentioned that he seems to me an archetype of the one who will be Antichrist. I believe that his rise to power serves as example of how the beast of Revelation chapter 13 might emerge from a reviving Roman Empire.

Alexis Tzipras, member of the left wing pro-Palestinian Syriza party, when elected prime minister of Greece, was thought to be a leader who would all but destroy relations between his nation and Israel. One of the most stunning surprises to come from the new Greek leader’s time in power has been his desire to embrace Israel as a future partner in mutually  beneficial economic interaction.

The following news item excerpt frames Tzipras’ friendly foray into Jerusalem.

Meeting with the Israeli leadership, opening a two day tour in Jerusalem and Ramallah, Tzipras praised the importance of the relations between Israel and Greece and showed that the partnership has survived the political change.

While in Jerusalem for a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Tsipras took an opportunity to sign the President’s guestbook, writing, ” With great honor to be in your historic capital and to meet your excellencies.”

(Source: In unprecedented move Greek PM calls Jerusalem Israel’s ‘historical capital’,  By Tal Shalev, Shalev/ i24news,  Published: 11/26/2015)

This reaching out to Israel with such profound inscription upon the guest book shocked the world of diplomacy and Israeli leadership, I think. No other national entity of any degree of stature within the international community dares call Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Tzipras has no such qualms. His signing the guest book as he did is a flattery that gripped even the heart of the always wary Benjamin Netanyahu.

Following meetings with Tzipras Wednesday, November 25, during which the leaders discussed how to cooperate in making deals on getting gas from the newly discovered underwater natural gas fields in Israeli and Cypriot waters, Netanyahu commented on the meeting:

We have a growing and enduring partnership between Greece and Israel.

We are two countries with ancient roots…– Although we are ancient peoples, we embrace the future, we embrace modernity… We’re the two democracies in the eastern Mediterranean and we are obviously aware that we have a world of opportunities – of technology, of development, of progress – to seize and we can seize it better through cooperation.

The Israeli prime minister turned to a smiling Tzipras then, and said, “There is, as you said, a natural affinity between the Israelis and the Greeks. It’s very obvious when you go to either country.”

Tzipras expressed the need for all to work together to rid the region and world of terrorism and to deal with ISIS in particular. He was scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority leaders in an effort to bring understanding between the Israelis and Palestinians.

What’s wrong with the Greek prime minister doing these peace-oriented things?  Absolutely nothing–so far as it goes. All  that this commentary is meant to do is to point to the unusual nature of this “unprecedented move” by a European leader, as one Israeli official called it.

In this time of ultra-political correctness, when Israel is seen as the roadblock to the Roadmap to Peace, because of their opposition to being forced to give in to giving up land, to have one leader, with words flattering to the Jewish state, break from the pack of anti-Israeli diplomatic wolves and call Jerusalem its capital is possibly of prophetic significance. That that leader is one of unusual charismatic personality and from the very heart of the reviving Roman Empire, makes things even more intriguing.

Daniel the prophet was given a prophecy to share with those who would be on scene at the very end of the world governmental system. It is most interesting to consider as we enter uncharted geopolitical, socioeconomic, and religious waters.

And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant. (Daniel 11:21-22)

What is your religious persuasion? The question is a standard one in the census polling process.

America’s population was 318.9 million as of 2014, according to Census Bureau statistics. Polling numbers that year showed that 70.6 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christians. This was a significant decline from polling done in 1990, in which 86 percent of Americans said they were Christians. Wikipedia has it that America has nearly 247 million Christians, the highest number of Christians of any nation, although there are other nations with percentages of Christians that are higher.

So, when asking people what is their religion the response will most often be, “Christian.” Or, they will answer by giving the particular denomination within Christianity with which they identify.

Such is the natural response in this land that was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. But, it is not the natural response that the Grand Poll Taker is seeking, but the supernatural. Based upon God’s analysis of His polling statistics hangs the fate of cultures, societies, and nations.

We can get a sense of Heaven’s polling methodology, I think, by looking at a specific case in which such census taking was employed—to an extent, at least. It is a most fascinating exercise considering planet earth’s apex nation, so far as super-power status, in human terms, is concerned.

The twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah—if we might think of them in that sense, such as we think of Minneapolis/St. Paul as “twin cities”—were powerful commercial societies of their time. These, of course, are infamous as cities whose fate is the stuff made of legend.

During the course of most any week, I come across one TV documentary or the other on one of my favorite such channels that goes into great detail about these cultures. Most often, the documentarians spend their time debunking the true biblical account, choosing instead to give every conceivable reason why these great commercial centers no longer exist. The film-makers tell the biblical story—in their own usually warped versions—but then give natural reasons why Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated.

Until relatively recent times, the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah and their destruction was most often scoffed at by historians. The cities were considered but mere legends. But digs at the southern end of the Dead Sea that continue to bring that civilization to the salty surface makes it crystal clear. These were real places that were devastated by fire and brimstone—just like God’s Word proclaims in the Genesis account.

Now, what does all of this have to do with America and statistics on the number of Christians in the nation? We remember the statement by Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Graham. We’ve all heard the statement many times. The perspicacious Mrs. Graham famously said: “If the Lord doesn’t judge America [for its wickedness] He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Many of us are in total agreement with her assessment. The reason for that quite harsh assessment is that America, it can be argued, has in some aspects gone even beyond the sinfulness of those two ancient cities. We could examine any number of ways this is true, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll mention only two. We’ve looked at these in great detail a number of times in these commentaries.

First, the most glaring similarity, with regard to Sodom and Gomorrah as compared to the United States today, is the matter of homosexuality. That was the great sin emphasized in the Genesis account of God’s dealing with that culture in judgment. I don’t have to go too deeply into the similarity, because we are all familiar—totally—with things going on just in the past couple of years in this country. The God-ordained union between a man and a woman has been changed by the courts of this land to pervert the God-given institution called marriage. Sexual activity that the Creator calls “abomination” the lawless, God-defying of America call “gay.” And, this is not to diminish the equally abominable sexual activity within the heterosexual world—fornication and adultery.

Secondly, the matter of abortion comes front and center in the comparison. Babies in the womb and small children in that ancient society undoubtedly cramped the style of the deviants of the time. The products of the unbridled sexual activity made it easy to sacrifice those babies upon the altar of convenience. The deeper that people went into debauchery, the more self-absorbed and willing to go to any lengths to make their next thrill more exhilarating.

In Sodom and Gomorrah we are talking about cities of thousands; in America we are talking about an entire nation of more than 300 million. They could have aborted only thousands; we—it is fully documented—abort more than one million per year. Recent undercover video evidence flashes proof in our faces for all to see. Planned Parenthood and its like gives irrefutable evidence that we have gone beyond that ancient people in the degree of unrighteousness perpetrated. And, it is the term “unrighteousness” that is the heart of the matter in the polling question with which we began this essay. The question: What is your religious persuasion?

The nation is, according to the answers given the pollsters, overwhelmingly Christian, even considering the drop in the numbers from 1990 until 2014. We are supposed to believe that 70.6 percent of America’s 318.9 million people are Christians. Again, that’s more than 247 million claiming to be Christians.

Now we come to the title of our commentary this week, Almighty’s Analysis of America.

People can say they are anything. The human pollsters must take down what they are given. The term “Christian” is accepted at face value and marked on the polling sheet. The Lord of Heaven, however, the Creator of all things—including the human being—goes infinitely more deeply into His polling process. To Him, the precise definition of the term “Christian” is of eternal importance.

The term “Christianity,” in Heaven’s economy, is tied to “righteousness.” To be a Christian, one must be righteous. But, the Bible says the following: “As it is written, There is none righteous no not one” (Romans 3:10). How, then, can anyone be a Christian—that is, how can anyone be considered righteous?

God’s grace gift provides the answer. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

God sees as righteous only those who have believed in His Son, Jesus Christ for salvation from their sins. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23); “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

When one is “saved,” he or she is “righteous” because God sees righteousness only in His beloved Son, who died as sacrifice for all of mankind.

Now we will get back to this matter of America and the percentage of those who say they are Christians. These figures don’t compute—don’t add up. Mrs. Graham was right. America’s degree of depravity, by any stretch, doesn’t come under God’s definition of righteousness. Revisiting our thoughts on Sodom and Gomorrah, God spoke with His servant, Abraham. He informed Abraham that he was going to have to destroy those wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the great sins of those people. The account is found in Genesis 18:23-33.

Abraham was terribly grieved and pleaded with the Lord. He asked if God could find fifty people who were righteous would He spare the cities. God agreed, but could not. Abraham then pleaded for God to search for forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, then ten righteous people in order to justify not destroying those places. In each case, the Lord tried but couldn’t find even ten. Among the many thousands in Sodom and Gomorrah, the Almighty’s Heavenly Census Bureau couldn’t find ten people who believed in Him in order to be considered righteous.

As I said, the documentarians are still reporting the findings of the archaeologists who are digging up the destruction of those doomed cities.

More and more I’m wondering—like Ruth Graham must surely have wondered—about the possibility of America’s ultimate fate being, if not in fact, in very like manner to that suffered by the city prophesied in Revelation chapter 18. A most encouraging truth in thinking on these things is that God found the man named Lot, a citizen of Sodom, to be “righteous” in His holy eyes. A few of Lot’s family were obviously considered likewise, because the Lord removed them from Sodom before the fire and brimstone fell. God said to Lot about that removal to safety: “Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither” (Genesis 19:22a).

The Lord told Lot that His judgment couldn’t fall with its total devastation until the righteous Lot was first taken out of harm’s way, and that meant until Lot and his family were completely removed—taken out of—that wicked city. Be encouraged, those of you who are righteous—who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus, Himself, in His ascended position at the right hand of His Father, makes a promise to a future generation. He uses the Greek verb “ek,” meaning “out of” in His promise. I believe that promise is made to the generation alive today. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from [out of] the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth“(Revelation 3:10).

The Lord counts you among those who will, perhaps very soon, hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4: 1).

Middle East maliciousness is literally exploding, igniting fires of death and fear across the world. Europe feels the heat of the Islamist rage as ISIS (or ISIL, as Mr. Obama terms it) turns up the rheostat of hatred in France and other places.

Europeans, particularly the Scandinavian countries, the favorites for Muslims who set their sights on migration, are becoming desperate for ways to close borders forced open by European Union dictates.

Polling statistics show that Americans are increasingly concerned that soon that incendiary, religious fanaticism will infect this nation. “Lone wolf” actions by ISIS wannabees are, in fact, bringing the more fanatic brand of Islam to this continent, which was more or less insulated from that religious fervor prior to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Towers.

ISIS propagandists, through social media and other methods, are making it known beyond any doubt that they view America as the place they most wish to spread their special brand of terror.

All of this is going on simultaneously across the world. All the while, governments and military authorities are nearly at a complete loss for how to deal with the Islamic beast. At the same time, there is an almost complete lack of mention of the one entity that most of the world considers the prime reason that there is all of this voracious activity by the likes of militant Islam.

It is downright eerie.

That entity, itself, is inexplicably silent for the most part about the rage to its north. I’m talking, of course, about Israel, the tiny Jewish state that is claimed by practically every diplomat in the world to be, in one way or another, at the heart of the ever more dangerous situation in the Middle East.

Israel has for decades been at the center of most every action and reaction to Muslim terrorism in the region. From the time of the murders of the Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics, to the downing of the World trade Towers and damage to the Pentagon during the 9-11 attacks, and until just recently, Israel has continuously been at the reportorial center of things. Not so now.

Israel is silent; the world seems to not be noticing that tiny nation for the moment. A legitimate question to ask is: Why is this so? Why, after decades in modern times—after thousands of years in the battle of Israel versus its enemies, is the modern Jewish state seemingly off the radar screen of the on-going conflict?

This, I realize, could change instantly—at any moment. Israel could be thrust in the middle of dire crisis before this column appears. It is an almost unnatural situation, if I may use that phraseology. The almost “natural” state is for Israel to be constantly and consistently blasted by its enemy, Islamist-antagonists and by the world community at large.

There have been, of course, occasional reports of Temple Mount turmoil of late on which we and others have commented. But, about the larger involvement of the entire Arab-Islamist world, and even Iran in the conflict with hated Israel, I find scant mention these days.

While Israel remains basically mute, and everyone else’s attention is turned to ISIS and the turbulence it is kicking up in Syria and around the world through its proxy “migrants,” Vladimir Putin and the Iranian mullahs are cooking up plans, the intentions of which only the Lord knows at this point. But, be sure of one thing, all of this means that the stage is being rapidly set for the final act of this pre-tribulation program that is about to begin.

To me, it almost seems like there is a circling around the intended prey by predators. The prey is being temporarily ignored while the pecking order is arranged for who will get the first spoils of the intended victim. This, I mean from a prophetic perspective.

There seems to be in the nebulous background of all this a power juxtapositioning of the apex predators and the scavenger types to determine what comes next with regard to the end times assault against the nation God chose long ago to remain standing when all others are vanquished. It’s as if Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s government are flummoxed as to what it all means—this violence that is on display to Israel’s north and, increasingly, around the globe. But, one thing sure, the Israeli prime minister and other Jews of good, common sense and a sense of history, know that it somehow all means that they—the Jews, Israel—are the intended prey. Somehow it will all come down to them having to consider invoking the Samson Option, in geopolitical terms of “them versus us.”

Israel is silent, but is not asleep. Netanyahu and the Israelis that have that sense of foreboding know that soon the hungry eyes of the predators will turn back to them just like they always do. Their deeply committed vow is “Never Again!”

Always the blame for the problems of the Middle East is directed at them. A news story this past week clearly indicates satanically-directed attitudes against God’s chosen people are as deluding as ever. Sweden is under attack by the so-called “migrants” from Syria and other areas that ISIS seeks to dominate in its determination to establish a world-wide caliphate. Swedish women and even young girls are being raped by the invading horde, it is reported. Despite this, one top Swedish government official manages to point a finger of blame at the strangely silent Jewish state.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström linked Palestinian grievances with Israel to the Islamist terror attacks that killed 129 people in Paris:

“Obviously, we have reason to be worried, not just in Sweden but across the world—because there are so many that are being radicalized. Here, once again, we are brought back to situations like the one in the Middle East, where not least, the Palestinians see that there is not a future. We must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence,” Wallström said in a television interview. (How Original: Sweden Blames Paris Attacks on Israel – Israel News, November 17, 2015).

That Israel is responsible for the Islamist rage is the message. Zechariah’s forewarning can be heard thundering, even if present day Israel is for the most part silent.

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zech 12:2-3)

Hatred for America that pervades today’s discontented liberal culture is a matter that to my generation is for the most part mind-boggling. How an almost completely unknown, societal agitator with an ideological make-up that would champion such hatred could ever be elected president of the United States—twice—is even more mind-boggling.

That a congress that represents the electorate could sit by while such a president gives Middle East madmen, vowed to wipe out America, the wherewithal to produce nuclear weapons to do just that is…well…I can’t even give definition to my generation’s frame of mind in that regard.

America’s many contributions to the progress in improvement of the human condition throughout the world only seems to bring increased hatred to our nation. The United States has in modern times been in every instance the first with the most assistance anywhere in the world that disasters strike. Whether it’s an earthquake in Guatemala, a Tsunami in Indonesia, a famine in Ethiopia, or whatsoever the catastrophe, the U.S. has been there, never asking repayment for the help. The only exception of this generosity was in the case of some degree of repayment for expenditures to rebuild war-torn countries when economies improved there. These payments were, in most every case, eventually forgiven for the most part.

Let’s face it, if America had not gotten involved in World Wars I and II, the world would be under the control of the likes of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. It was America’s might and willingness to shed American blood of its youth that has given the world even the—admittedly—diminishing bit of freedom’s light that remains on the planet. Europe would still be clearing the rubble of World War II, if not for America’s vast contributions to the restoration of that devastated region.

Now, we face our own form of devastation. The American taxpayer has—without much push-back—allowed out-of-control government to spend trillions upon trillions of dollars on economy-crippling social programs—bankrupting the country. It has been an addled-brain act of politically-motivated largesse that has produced a welfare system filled with many non-job seekers who, because of anger over perceived cultural wrongs, readily join in the hate-filled rants against America.

The fallen human mind is full of envies and jealousies. It is no wonder, then, that the apex nation of world history so far as concerns material blessings should be hated. But, the animus goes far beyond mere human envies and jealousies.

And, this reality is why America, although not mentioned by name in the Bible, is a factor that plays heavily into God’s plan for His creation called man. That America was brought on the scene late in history in order to fulfill God’s purposes, there can be little doubt.

Because the Lord’s plan for humanity is opposed at every point by His greatest enemy, America’s role is, by association with that plan, a target—a major target. We can see God’s most hate-filled enemy firing his supernatural ordinance at this nation on an almost hourly basis.

Satan’s dark, spiritual firepower is directed at destroying America’s moral fiber. The national fabric is literally unraveling as each volley slams against our most basic institutions and against the Constitution God gave our founding fathers the wisdom and discernment to form.

The family is torn apart, with unwanted babies murdered in their mother’s wombs by the millions. Marriage is redefined as same-sex couplings being equal to—even superior to—heterosexual unions. Mention of Jesus Christ is becoming the equivalent of hate-speech. At the same time, Islam, whose holy book says it is acceptable, even incumbent upon Muslim men, to rape non-Muslim women—and even children—is protected and shielded by a governing system gone mad with sin-sickened, reprobate thinking.

America, I believe a study of this nation’s founding and subsequent comportment throughout most of its history will attest, has served two basic purposes in God’s great plan for humanity. First, it has served as the primary vehicle to get the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. Second, it has served as the mid-wife to bring the nation Israel into modernity, in preparation for the wind-up of human history.

For this, Satan wages an increasingly virulent war against the United States. That war will continue to intensify by the minute, I have no doubt, until Christ calls His church into Heaven. This means to the Christian that we are to stand against this great assault as directed in God’s Word.

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Eph 6: 10-17)