Things are progressing so quickly in the area of people-control technologies that I must admit I simply can’t keep up. A book by Tom Horn and Terry Cook called Beast Tech is among the most recent information encompassing that technology from the perspective of Bible prophecy. But, even their excellent research and presentation can’t keep up, and the authors would be the first to admit it, I’m sure.

This is because 1) the technologies themselves are achieving breakthroughs almost hourly, and 2) the Internet is such an instantaneous medium that the slower-moving book industry lags behind to some extent. Being a writer of books, though, I will defend our own medium by saying that the research is usually more reliable and comprehensive than the “Wild West” the many ungoverned verbal gun-slingers have made cyberspace.

When researching and writing on anything taken off the Net, one must proceed with caution. Many, even within the professional ranks of the world’s top journalists, are occasionally fooled by the imaginations of these cyberspace outlaws who deliberately send out false information or ill-intended directives. This is particularly true of those operating within some of the diabolist nations of the world like Iran, Russia, China, and most of the nations in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, for the past number of years, the United States has fallen under that term of “nefarious news making” in the eyes of many who believe they have seen movement away from truth toward a Joseph Goebbels-type propagandist dissemination of information. This is particularly true with what has been going on regarding all of the NSA, the IRS, and other agencies’ misdirection, and outright lies fed the American public. All the while, those organizations, along with the most previous presidential administration, assured that action was being taken to stop the unconstitutional activities. Yet we learn almost daily that these anti-constitutionalist actions were being ratcheted up for purposes that can only be described as political.

It appears that this was joined wholeheartedly by mainstream media and leftist pajama-bloggers for purposes of covering the former president’s lack of forthrightness, and for paving the way for one particular future presidential candidate as the 2016 election drew nearer. It seems that one gigantic election campaign was underway very early–even before the mid-terms of 2014 had taken place.

And, make no mistake: I’m not so naïve as to lay all of the destructiveness to American liberty at the feet of any one political party. This is a devilish system put together with the acquiescence–even with the eager cooperation—of those central planners, regardless of political affiliation, who make their careers and retirement fortunes within the DC Beltway. –The so-called deep state.

Government’s growing determination to lie to the U.S. populace, aided and abetted by the sycophantic press, makes the developing super-snooping, controlling technologies all the more virulent in the liberty-suppressing efforts to hornswoggle we the people. The dangers are already past the forewarning stage.

Supercomputer capacities for gathering every minute detail of our lives from birth to death now exist. The all-knowing information storage and policing implementation control center is a done deal.

Known as the Utah Data Center, the facility located near Bluffdale, Utah, recently completed, it is supposed, is the brain of America’s most secretive, clandestine service, the National Security Agency (NSA).

The NSA has become the biggest, most covert, and, I would conjecture, most intrusive intelligence agency in U.S. history. It intercepts, deciphers, analyzes, and stores tremendous amounts of the world’s communications as they transmit from satellites and flash through international, foreign, and domestic network cables that are underground and undersea.

According to experts who have studied about the facility, when its final phase is completed, it will be five times larger than the U.S. Capitol building. It has code-breaking capabilities that represent breakthroughs that are astonishing, and that are astonishingly invasive of the American way of life. The potential for unconstitutional intrusion was so great that initiatives known as the Total Awareness Program, meant to use these very technologies introduced by the George W. Bush administration, was voted down by Congress in 2003.

That vote, apparently, has been circumvented. The center will, through the stunning technologies developed, handle financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, and confidential personal communications. All will be heavily encrypted.

Again, I am, admittedly, very comprehension-challenged as to just what all is wrapped within this complex. I do know, however, based upon the very Word of God, that just such a system is on its way for the consummation of the age. It is clearly outlined in Revelation 13:16-18. Tribulation technology is tightening the noose around the measured amount of human freedom that is left in this decaying world. Jesus’ return to planet earth is the only hope for what seems to be liberty’s last gleaming.

The hour is late in human history. Things–strange things—are manifesting, with frequency and intensity.

We’ve often discussed the birth pang-like convulsions prophesied by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse. They are front and center today on an hourly basis, and reported in a steady stream throughout the alternate cyberspace news outlets. Wars, rumors of wars, deceivers and deception, signs in the sun, moon, and stars, famines, pestilence, earthquakes in many places, the seas of both oceanic and human sorts roaring–for the student who observes the times from a Bible prophecy, futurist perspective, the signs are all there. We are nearing the moment of Christ’s return.

We are given very strong hints that something wicked this way will come as the end of the age approaches. Paul the apostle said, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

Jesus told the priests and others who came to seize him for His crucifixion that the time was their “hour, and power of darkness” (Luke 22:53b). At that moment that mystery of iniquity–of lawlessness–had arisen to the point that absolute evil looked as if it would overcome absolute goodness. The world would put Christ to death. The occult powers of Satan’s realm were intent on forever erasing the name of Jesus from human history.

Supernatural powers of darkness have arisen at various times down through the eons of earthly time. The crucifixion, the demonically inspired crusades undertaken in the name of Christ, the inquisitions, the Nazis and Communists…the dark powers perennially assault the only goodness to be found in this fallen world. Satan wars against God’s creation, man.

As we have looked at many times, Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus tells us: “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” (Ephesians 6:12). It seems that the more these forces of darkness intrude into the lateness of the age, the more humankind looks at them with increased fascination, as if mesmerized. It must have been like that when the first woman, Eve, gazed upon the serpent and wanted to know more.

Considering the successes of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Steven King’s Carrie, as well as myriad other beastly tomes such as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the evidence appears to prove that there is an insatiable lust for things conjured from the evil fountains of the fallen mind. Zombies seem to be the latest from the dark muses that inhabit the minds of certain writers of fiction.

At this late hour on God’s prophetic timeline, it becomes increasingly obvious that the dark minions are in the process of breaking out of the fiction inhabiting the writers’ and readers’ psyches. The goblins and ghouls are presenting live–or would that be dead—presentations in which humans are active participants.

But more disturbing than the conjuring of fictional minions of the nether world is the satanic rage ignited by the 2016 presidential election. It is a hellish insanity that seems to have engulfed America, with mainstream media fanning the flames like a blacksmith’s bellows.

Again, the lateness of the prophetic hour means that the time is very near when the Holy Spirit’s restraining influence will remove from this rebellious world (2 Thessalonians 2:7). The vileness that will pour through that portal is something you don’t want to experience. Nor will you, if you know Christ for salvation (Romans 10: 9-10).

There is a growing lament as we get more deeply into 2017. The 120-degree temperatures in the desert southwest are bringing to the surface again the sophistry of global warming/climate change. Let us revisit the topic, as I find it entertaining.

In thinking on former Vice President Al Gore’s travels in his carbon footprint-spreading private jet while he preaches the globalist gospel that has at its center “global warming,” it is impossible not to enjoy a good guffaw at his and the climate-change Charlies as the temperatures invariably fall, as does freezing precipitation wherever and whenever they hold their meetings.

I’m sorry to invoke schadenfreude here, but when one writes on topics as serious as ours usually are in these commentaries, one must take one’s laughs when one can–especially when they are handed to one on a silver platter…well…a white platter, perhaps is more to the point. Such a time of enjoyment over the misfortune of a group of Mr. Gore’s fellow ideological travelers presented itself not many years ago, as I hope you remember.

A shipload of “researchers” made its way into the summertime of the Antarctic. Strangely, mainstream news sources as of this writing still have not explained the purpose or mission of these mates as they neared their destination. I suppose it is cynical to hazard a guess as to why the mainstream media hasn’t reported the purpose of the mission, but the reason for the laxity of forthcoming journalistic honesty became obvious as the global warming hunters became landlocked–well—ice-locked, to be exact.

It seems that, like Mr. Gore, his ideological kinsmen–and kinswomen—don’t have a lot of luck in finding the elusive global warming they seek.

Could it be a curse cast by Mother Earth for their attempting to become too familiar with her intimate weather cycle doings? Mr. Gore certainly seemed during that time to have stirred some sort of irate behavior by the goddess he and his fellow environmental elitists so doggedly revere. Or, could it just be that global warming is a phony-baloney pursuit to extract from the rest of us confiscatory carbon emissions taxes to fund the one-world order they seek to build and rule over? –The scam that President Trump thankfully got America out of recently.

Hmmm…ya think?

At any rate, the following excerpted story is a hoot, in my estimation. You might remember having heard about it a number of times, but it is simply too delicious to not repeat here.

Somewhere far, far to the south where it is summer, a group of global warming scientists are trapped in the Antarctic ice. If you missed the irony of that situation, it is because much of the mainstream media have glossed over that rather inconvenient bit of hilarity. As an example, here is an Associated Press story that avoids mentioning the real mission of the scientists aboard the icebound Russian ship:

The Snow Dragon icebreaker came within 7 miles (11 kilometers) of the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been stuck since Christmas Eve, but had to retreat after the ice became too thick, said expedition spokesman Alvin Stone. The Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been on a research expedition to Antarctica, got stuck Tuesday after a blizzard’s whipping winds pushed the sea ice around the ship, freezing it in place. The ship wasn’t in danger of sinking, and there are weeks’ worth of supplies for the 74 scientists, tourists and crew on board, but the vessel cannot move… The scientific team on board the research ship — which left New Zealand on Nov. 28 — had been recreating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson’s century-old voyage to Antarctica when it became trapped…

Um, there is a bit more to the expedition than merely following in the footsteps of a century-old voyage. But what that mission really is, AP won’t say. If AP is vague about the mission’s purpose, Reuters provides even less information… The expedition is being led by Chris Turney, “climate scientist”, who has “set up a carbon refining company called Carbonscape which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products, helping reduce greenhouse gas levels.” The purpose of the expedition is “to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south.” It seems they found out what the “environmental changes taking place in the south are.” (“MSM Glosses Over Irony of Global Warming Scientists Trapped in Antarctic Ice,” NewsBusters, 12/30/13)

Ah, so now we see the mainstream media’s reluctance to flat out state why the scientists are in the Antarctic. Anything to avoid an inconvenient (but accurate) headline like this:

GLOBAL WARMING SCIENTISTS TRAPPED IN ANTARCTIC ICE

They were reported at the time to have plenty of heat, food, and lots of snow from which to make water, and the ship wasn’t in any danger of being squashed, apparently. Plus, a Russian icebreaker, which also got stuck, and yet another icebreaker was sent to free the global warming research vessel from the fifteen-foot-thick ice pack.

In on-going updates, reports told of how the global warmists were rescued by several carbon emission-gushing helicopters and icebreakers (yet another of one which also got stuck in the growing ice). The global warming “scientists” were soon happily on their way to less hostile environs. So, no harm done with the schadenfreude.

Antichrist is going to rule the whole world at some point before Christ returns–right? That is the thought of many who have studied Bible prophecy throughout the decades. It is not an accurate assessment of what is scheduled, however.

Much of the thinking regarding the all-encompassing rule of the beast of Revelation chapter 13–Antichrist—is based upon the prophetic passage: “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16). It certainly appears from this portion of Scripture–Revelation 13:12-18—and others that the entire world of earth-dwellers comes under Antichrist’s beastly rule. But this is not the case.

There is a fancy term that defines why the simple word “all” doesn’t necessarily mean “all.” The term is “synecdoche,” which, according to the World English Dictionary, is a figure of speech in which a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part, as in fifty head of cattle for fifty cows or the army for a soldier.

This means for our purposes here that the use of the expression “He causeth all” is a synecdoche, or representative of many people throughout the earth, but not necessarily every single individual on earth or every nation. The Bible might include a synecdoche in terms of geography, but never in matters dealing with the soul. In other words, when Paul wrote that “all” will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, he meant that literally everyone who is born again will be changed in that atomos of time that will be the moment of Rapture. When John wrote “He causeth all,” he meant “all” in the synecdochical sense.

All of that explanation is to say that Antichrist will have absolute power over much of planet Earth, but not all of it. He will not, according to Bible prophecy, be allowed to spread his tyrannical hegemony to the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan, for example. That prophecy is most interesting when considered in light of the news story released some years ago.

The Obama Administration and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have both reportedly sided with Israel in its demand to retain control over the Jordan Valley in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians…

Israel has long insisted that, even if it surrenders the bulk of Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”), it must retain control of the Jordan Valley as a buffer against future external threats, and as a deterrent and protection against Palestinian aggression.

Jordan wants Israel in the Jordan Valley to prevent further influx of Palestinian Arabs into the Hashemite Kingdom. Jordan’s Palestinian majority has threatened the Bedouin-backed Hashemite monarchy in the past, including in the 1970-1971 Jordanian Civil War. (Ryan Jones, “US, Jordan Agree: Israel Should Control Jordan Valley,” Israel Today, 12/09/13).

There has been over the decades an almost comfortable arrangement between Israel and Jordan. The late Jordanian King Abdullah, and now his son, have always received a degree of protection from Israel, the much-hated Arab enemy.

Of course, the geopolitical reason for the arrangement is that Jordan and surrounding area gives Israel a buffer zone against attacks that could otherwise be launched, giving the Jewish state a much shorter warning time. However, the real reason for the peaceful arrangement doubtless derives from heavenly directive. Jordan is scheduled to escape the deadly Antichrist regime’s tyrannical grip during the time of Tribulation. There are interesting aspects of this apparently heaven-given arrangement we will examine momentarily.

Let’s look first at the prophesied rise of Antichrist in the region and the lead-up to the matter of Jordan escaping his murderous control. Daniel the prophet gives the beast of Revelation 13 the title “the king”:

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)

And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. (Daniel 11: 36)

He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. (Daniel 11:41)

Daniel switches from ancient wars and conquest, as recorded in chapter 11 prior to verse 40, to suddenly bring the reader to the end of the age and the Antichrist’s appearance and rampage across the pages of end times history. This vile king of fierce countenance overtakes many nations, but Daniel foretells that Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon escape his terrible land grab.

Moab, which is in essence modern-day Jordan, it is fascinating to consider, isn’t mentioned as part of the coalition in the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel 38 prophesied to attack Israel. It is also interesting that Edom, part of modern Jordan, is the place the Lord will come from at the Second Advent in great fury. Bozrah was that area’s capital. Here is what Isaiah said about that area when Christ returns to do battle with Antichrist and earth’s rebels:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. (Isaiah 63:1-4)

Another fascinating point of prophecy to consider, seeing as how Jordan and its relationship with Israel is currently arranged as it is, is that nation’s apparent treatment of the Jews as Antichrist’s full fury storms against them as given in Revelation chapter 12. The remnant of Israel will escape into the wilderness while Satan’s forces rage after them. It will be in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week, the last half or three and a half years into the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). All Jews are told to flee Jerusalem, for Antichrist’s full fury will come against them.

The remnant of Israel will flee, many believe to Petra, the ancient, rose-red city. And that is, guess where, in the Jordanian desert area, somewhat south of the place known in ancient times as Bozrah.

Whether the hiding place is Petra or another, it almost will certainly be in the area of the Jordanian valley, and Christ will make a stop there, as we know, to save God’s chosen people–the remnant (all) of believing Israel.

Jordan is proving to be one more indicator of this late date on God’s prophetic timeline.

I remember writing a few years ago a piece on Israel. It was the morning that was the first day of the Pre-Trib prophecy conference in Dallas–the 23rd such conference, according to Dr. Tim LaHaye, the founder of the forum. that year’s conference was on Israel and that nation’s destiny.

We have addressed this subject on a number of occasions on Rapture Ready, but it is one that never grows stale–at least not with me. So, it was that the insights gained during that conference while listening to Dr. David Hocking made the trip worthwhile, even if I didn’t sit through many other sessions.

Israel is the prophetic signal–if one were to choose just one specific sign–that should prove to any rationally oriented mind that: 1) God’s Word is true, and 2) This generation is very near the end of the dispensation of grace.

Dr. Hocking, one of the most knowledgeable scholars and speakers on Israel, spent 45 minutes or so laying out the case for Israel being the one nation that is guaranteed to be such forever. In the process of his presentation, he, without having to say so, built the foundation to show that the God of the Bible is the one and only God. He told how he had opportunity to witness to a cabbie who had driven him from the airport to the hotel. He said the cab driver made the mistake of asking what he was doing in Dallas. Dr. Hocking told him he was speaking at a conference. The cabbie, a Muslim a native of the Middle East, asked him what he was speaking on, and the conversation that followed was one of great interest. The shuttle van’s driver said something about Allah being in charge of everything, and Dr. Hocking went into depth–for the brief duration of the ride from DFW to the hotel, how there is only one God and His Name is Yahweh. He didn’t say–or I don’t remember him reporting that he did so–how the conversation ended. But, David spoke the following morning with his head still attached, so I presume the driver didn’t consider the infidel’s offense of sufficient magnitude to take jihad action. Or, maybe Dr. Hocking didn’t mention Mohammed, which seems to be the red line for employing the scimitar, like in the case we remember involving the writer Salman Rushdie from some years back.

Again, David Hocking’s presentation was on Israel and her destiny. That topic continues to be at the heart of what is going on, prophetically, in the world today. One question Hocking addressed was the question of whether Israel today is fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Is the modern state of Israel a literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy?

The more academic of Bible prophecy scholars–the seminarians–mostly hold that Israel being back in the land God gave the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is “preparation” for fulfillment of prophecy, in their view, but not literal fulfillment of any specific prophecy. I was rather surprised, and pleasantly so, to learn that David Hocking considers it literal fulfillment, not merely preparation for fulfillment of prophecy from the futurist point of view.

Dr. Hocking certainly fits into the fold of academia, but his overwhelming, evidence-laden exposition on modern Israel being prophecy fulfilled in our time proved, to me, at least, that the academic purists within the pre-Trib view of eschatology camp are out of sync with what God predicts for Israel.

Now, for a commercial. That’s what my book, Cauldron: Supernatural Implications of the Current Middle East, is about, in its essence. It is a treatment–and, if I may say so, a very reader-friendly treatment–of why Israel is at the center of world geopolitical controversy and has become a nation blamed for the threat of global nuclear war–thus, even though it is that tiny Jewish state, itself, that is constantly threatened with destruction from its enemy neighbors.

The book covers the current, precarious state of world peace. It goes back to the book of Genesis to find the beginning of the supernatural hatred being waged against modern Israel at this very hour. It deals, often in minute detail, with some of the international intrigues being plotted for the wind-up of human history.

The bottom line is summed up scripturally with the prophetic words, “He who keepth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” To put it another way–“Israel forever!”

All directions in God’s Word to humanity–the Bible–point outward from God’s touchstone city to the human race. That is, Jerusalem is the topographical center of the world from God’s Holy perspective.

Therefore, north, south, east, and west, in terms of Bible prophecy, can be determined by considering that all-important city as the starting point.

We will look in this commentary at the kings of the east prophecy. That prophesied group of potentates, then, must be viewed as if we are standing, perhaps, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and looking eastward. This is how we can know that the kings of the east referred to in prophecy yet future are those kings or national entities of China and the Orient in general.

Here are the nucleus scriptural references to the kings of the east prophecy:

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13-16)

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

We note with interest that the Euphrates River seems to be the boundary dividing the Occidental world from the Oriental. God tells through prophecy that this boundary harbors some powerful and tremendously evil demonic actors that are incarcerated until time for the prophesied invasion from that Oriental world. As a matter of fact, these are so powerful that they will imbue this force of two hundred thousand-member military with the capability of killing one-third of the people of the world.

I’m aware that there is a train of thought that puts forth that one-third of a specific number of combatants who are to die in the overall campaign of Armageddon will be killed by this force from the Orient. To me it reads that one-third of those living on the planet will be killed.

That there are supernatural elements involved within this murderous capability cannot be denied. It is reasonable to presume, I believe, however, that nuclear weaponry might be employed in accomplishing that grisly task.

The prophecy concerning the kings of the east becomes particularly fascinating, I think, when looking at geopolitical military rearrangements taking place today.

To preface these considerations, I urge us to remember that the demonic minions that will be the catalyst to galvanize the destructive kings of the east force are presently under God’s restraining power. These evil entities are held back until a particular “hour, and a day.” There is a specific moment when they will be unleashed to cause the two hundred million-man force to kill one-third of everyone living on the planet.

I have always considered it a point of fascination that since the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, there hasn’t been a single incident of a nuclear weapon discharged in any sort of military conflict. There have been nuclear tests of every sort, above ground and below. But, not a single nuclear warhead of any sort has been fired as part of military action.

My friends, this lack of employing nuclear weaponry has taken far more than diplomacy, human fear, in trepidation, or whatsoever else. This has been the obvious, restraining hand of the God of Heaven. Just like in the case of the evil angels being restrained somewhere beneath the Euphrates, the nuclear, war-making genie has been kept in the bottle marked “For Tribulation Only.”

As a matter of fact, the nuclear factor has been used, I’m convinced, by the Lord Himself, to prevent man from self-destruction. If nuclear weapons were not at the ready at every moment of every day, the human race might have long ago ended most if not all life on earth with conventional weapons only slightly less horrific. Man has–some would surmise–retained the common-sensibility, at least to this point, to refrain from all-out war, since those two, small-by-comparison nuclear bombs that ended World War II.

North Korea forges ahead with production of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to far-distant points. This, despite a president who has vowed that such development will not be allowed to be brought to the point the NK weapons can be used against the United States. There seems shaping a showdown of monumental magnitude at some point soon.

Yet, as many who read these commentaries know, I’m convinced there will be no earth-shattering event such as nuclear war take place until the Rapture has occurred. I’m convinced that Jesus’ words in the days of Noah and days of Lot prophecy in Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30 indicate it will be business as usual–even better than usual–right up until He next “reveals” Himself to a rebellious world. This will be Rapture, not Second Advent when He will come back to earth to put an end to Armageddon and the threatened, complete destruction of all life on earth.

Meantime, it is an almost certainty in my spirit-mind that there will be no complete disarmament of the nuclear powers. These weapons of mass destruction will doubtless, in my opinion, be used during the Tribulation, as part of judgment and wrath poured upon the evil and rebellion that will be against the God of Heaven.

The North Koreans might be restrained in some fashion from unleashing their nukes on the rest of us for now. They will, however, likely have them at their disposal when they rage across the dried-up Euphrates under demonic influence. China and the rest of the Oriental diabolists will, the prophecy says, kill one-third of people left on the planet at that time. Certainly, nuclear weaponry could accomplish fulfillment of that prophecy.

It is interesting to think on the fact that there seems to be no nuclear weaponry used on Israel as the Gog-Magog forces descend like a cloud to take great spoil. It is a conventional force that makes the assault, apparently. At that point there is either great restraint so they can enjoy the “spoils” they intend to take, or there is restraint on the Gog-Magog forces of some other sort, preventing use of nuclear weaponry. There are those who believe that this is because there has been nuclear disarmament at this juncture, and there are no nuclear weapons available. I do not agree.

God, Himself, will unleash His own form of “nukes” at that time, destroying all but one-sixth of the invading force.

The assault from the kings of the east seems to have no such encumbrances of nuclear restraint. The attack seems to come later than the Gog-Magog attack as the wind-up of the campaign of Armageddon looms.

One thing is sure in my view of these matters. We are witnessing things shaping for prophetic fulfillment in the arena of the kings of the east in regard to the nuclear factor.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio–Pope Francis, 266th pontiff of the Catholic Church–seems to take the world by storm, as they say. He is, of course, the 112th pope since twelfth-century Irish Bishop, St. Malachy, “prophesied” that the last pope would be number 112 from the time he made the “prophecies,” as we’ve all learned about by now.

Obviously, he hasn’t overtly taken the official name “Petrus Romanus,” Peter the Roman, as Malachy predicted would be the moniker of the final pope who would preside over the Catholic Church during an era of the greatest time of trouble in its history. Let’s think again briefly upon what Malachy said he foresaw. Malachy’s biographer, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, reported in Life of Saint Malachy that St. Malachy wrote briefly, in Latin, on each succeeding pope of the future, and then gave the document to Pope Innocent II, who had it placed in Vatican archives, where it remained for several centuries. It was rediscovered in 1590 and published.

Some scholars who have studied these predictions carefully claim that Malachy was remarkably accurate about succeeding popes right up through Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated his papal throne in 2013. Others who have looked into these things have found that in most cases regarding the Malachy prophecies, the bishop’s predictions were too oblique, too veiled, or couched in esoteric description to be validated as having been fulfilled to any great extent. Our bottom line conclusion must be that, while most of Malachy’s “prophecies” about the popes are questionable as to absolute proof that the bishop was accurate in every case, there is little doubt that the 112th pope from the time he wrote the predictions is a strange pope to be sure.

The world at large literally loves the guy. His popularity really jumped on a global scale–and especially in the view of national and international mainstream media, when he implied that there might be many ways to God and Heaven, and declared that Christians must be more tolerant of things we don’t embrace or understand. At least, that was the gist of his statements.

The pope made it clear in a number of statements in various speaking forums that the Catholic Church and all of Christendom must cease condemning and excluding from God’s kingdom homosexuals and those who hold other religious views than those that are Jesus Christ-centered.

That sentiment, even among a growing number within so-called Christian churches, is a visceral part of all of humanism’s elite and their mouthpieces. The Christian Bible and its harsh, restrictive, “one way to God” is intolerant, bigoted, homophobic, and bordering on fundamentalist insanity that desires to bring the world to Armageddon. (The pope didn’t say that; I did, based upon his stance of his years as pontiff that has won him great accolades.)

America’s former president was perhaps the most recent of the global leaders to express this pope’s elevated standing in his opposition to biblical restrictions. Barack Obama said: “I have been hugely impressed with the pope’s pronouncements.” He described Pope Francis as “somebody who lives out the teachings of Christ [who, by the way, claimed He is the only Way to God, the Heavenly Father]. Incredible humility–incredible sense of empathy to the least of these, to the poor.”

In his interview with the CNBC business news channel, Obama was asked about Francis’ comment that the Catholic Church has become too “obsessed” with issues like gay rights and abortion. Obama said: “[Pope Francis is] somebody who is–I think first and foremost–thinking about how to embrace people as opposed to push them away; how to find what’s good in them as opposed to condemn them…And that spirit, that sense of love and unity, seems to manifest itself in not just what he says, but also what he does. And, you know, for any religious leader, that’s something–that’s a quality I admire” (http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/10/02/obama-pope-francis-cnbc-abortion-gay-rights/2911067/).

Sure sounds good, doesn’t it? Unity–that’s the ticket for the coming Antichrist system. Unity means to embrace all belief systems as acceptable to God’s prescription for living on planet Earth, according to the globalists elite. This is the route to “peace.”

We are to embrace those religionists who behead women for having been raped. We are to accept as brothers those who murder anyone with whom they don’t agree.

Pope Francis once met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. He wasn’t prepared to give the Israeli prime minister an audience, however. Yet, he was pushing the peace process so Palestine can have its statehood on Israel’s tiny land mass.

The pope gave the Palestinian leader a special pen. He said when handing it to him, “Surely, you have a lot of things you have to sign.”

Abbas responded, “I hope to sign a peace treaty with Israel with this pen.”

My thought was, upon reading about the pope’s generosity, the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 will have a sidekick who will–like Mr. Big himself–push the peace that will be the covenant made with death and hell (Isaiah 28:15, 18).

These are times the entertainment industry gleefully uses to take advantage of those they see as nutcases. The supposed nutcases are those whose determination is to prepare for what they envision as the coming meltdown of civilization.

You can see the programs on the various channels during the course of any given week. The producers of such programs, it is obvious from the programming, pick and choose the most conspiratorially prone of the “preppers,” as they are called, to film while the producers follow those preppers’ every move.

You can sense from the tone of the narration that it is, for the most part, tongue-in-cheek so far as the producers of these programs are concerned. They are simply trying to entertain the viewers by doing case studies on the fringe “kooks” who are out there in the few wildernesses left in America.

Of course, the kooks themselves are clueless. They are dead serious about their prepping, and that makes it all the more entertainment fodder for the hip TV production crews as they send the filmed fruits of their labor into such areas as, particularly, the sophisticated, metropolitan regions of the Northeast and the cool, with-it West Coasters of places like San Francisco.

I think I’m considered in with the “nut jobs,” at least until they talk to me, by the producers of such programming. It used to be that I only got emails, followed by phone calls from the documentary producers who wanted my take on the Rapture. The Rapture is, of course, also fodder for entertaining the hip of the nation. However, now I am included in the producers’ search for those who want to make the case for the prepping going on in this nation and elsewhere. In most cases, I never hear from the producers again, after the initial “pre-interview,” as they call it. When those call, I give them the biblical explanation of these things–with chapter and verse. I don’t go into my personal opinion–at least rarely do so.

They don’t seem to like the answers they get. I think it is because I usually end it with the Gospel Message, weaving it as adroitly as possible into my answers to their inquiries.

By the end of our conversations, they usually say something like, “Thank you so much. This is great. We’ll get back shortly.” Then they ask: “Do you know anyone we might talk to who says they know the day of the Rapture?” Or, in the case of this prepping question: “Can you give us the names of anyone who believes the world will soon be destroyed?”

I never give them the names they seek. I never hear from most of them again.

I have to say that I’m not a fan of the prepping TV programs. But I think it wise to at least think about having finances in order and some degree of preparations in place–like food and emergency-kit-type things in case of severe economic downturn, not unlike preparations that the wise citizens of places along the coastal areas might make, just to be ready in case of hurricane aftereffects.

But there seems to be a kind of prepping in reverse going on in this country and around the world. This is what I want to address, if I may explain… The prepping for truly bad times to come is being done, as I see it, by government and its enablers/propagandists in mainstream media, in particular. Forget the masses. They are, for the most part, absorbed into the entertainment and day-to-day ether that obscures all perception of what’s really going on around them. They seem blissfully ignorant when it comes to the preparatory activity taking place, readying the hapless masses for fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Two areas I see as most obvious are those involving economy and religion. Another is preparations being made for setting up the false peace that will bring all nations to Armageddon–but that one will have to take second place for the moment.

Anyone who has carefully examined the financial upheaval since 2006 or so, leading into the 2008 collapse and rise in debt of nations around the world, and particularly in America, will acknowledge that control of finances by individuals has forever been usurped by governments who have mortgaged the futures of the citizenry of those indebted national entities. This is all about prepping for fulfillment of Bible prophecy, although largely not realized by those in governments who have done the usurping.

It is the same in the religious realm. All have been prepping. Congresses and presidents, parliaments and prime ministers in the Western nations have for decades been turning out the light of Christianity by proposing banning God–particularly the name of Jesus Christ–from public places. Many ways to God are embraced within the governance of the people in the name of “tolerance,” although total neutrality is preferred by the increasingly agnostic leaders. Jesus Christ is unmentionable, proving the Lord’s word as true–that the world would hate Him, and eventually, will hate all who claim His Holy Name through belief in Him. This is all prepping by the humanistic one-world builders who are determined to establish change. They want change that doesn’t include God in any fashion except that which will be the god of this world once this false religious system comes to fruition.

We find this religious and economic prepping’s prophetic culmination in 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 13. The way is being prepped for world-wide religious worship, as given in Revelation 13: 8: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

The object of this new-world-order worship is found in the following prophetic passage given through the apostle Paul: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposed and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Prepping is being carried out at every level of culture and society by Satan-inspired human governments for fulfillment of Bible prophecy. That prophecy involving worldwide economic control is found in the following: “And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Revelation 13:16-18).

So, how should the Christian be prepping for the bleak future that is immediately set before us? I think the following scriptural admonitions are the best preparation to be found: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (Matthew 6:19—20).

The most solid advice of all is given to us by the Word of God as follows: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Then we are to do the following: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

There are today so many obvious assaults against God-given principles through which we are meant to comport ourselves, that choosing any as the number-one assault should be a difficult thing to do. But, it isn’t, as I believe we will understand upon reaching the end of this essay.

We can with certainty state that in America at this moment, Satan is leading assaults on God’s prescription for marriage. It is working. Not too many years ago, more than 70 percent of people involved in romantic relationships in the United States got married, in the legal sense. These were man-woman marriages. Today, fewer than 50 percent are getting married, choosing to engage in live-in arrangements. But, the number of marriages of men to men and women to women, although still low, is growing. It is more than obvious that this is a satanically inspired trend that is prophetically scheduled to increase. (Jesus said it will be like it was in the days of Lot when He next intervenes, catastrophically, into the history of man. Homosexuality was at the heart of Sodom’s society and culture.)

This isn’t, however, the top assault Satan and his minions are making on this generation.

An even more horrific attack on humanity is the murder of babies in their mothers’ wombs. The evil one has convinced a large section of those who claim to be the most compassionate, caring, intelligent among us–the “progressives”—that burning little ones to death in the womb, or ripping them apart, or–if still breathing upon making it to birth–killing them by severing the spines is nothing more than birth control after the fact. At this infanticide–getting rid of human beings like refuse–the devil has been most successful.

This isn’t, though, his number-one priority.

The great deceiver incessantly attacks the human, fallen mind, inciting the greed within, fanning the flames of avarice. The result is movement toward one-world, economic enslavement, in which the few intend to control the rest of us by severely governing our ability to buy and sell. The devil is working, seemingly to perfection, his plan to one day install the 666 “Beast” system of Revelation 13:16-18. Even this love-of-money incitement, though, is not the number-one assault being made by Lucifer, the fallen one.

His absolute hatred for the creation called man is eclipsed only by his insane detestation of the God of Heaven. He drives the hatreds man has for his fellow man, instigating conflicts and wars at every opportunity. In this he has been highly successful, with well over 15,000 wars being waged and countless millions of lives being destroyed over the centuries.

This carnage is increasing, with the twentieth century seeing the most prolific loss of life in war ever, due to the horrendous capability of modern weaponry. With the fantastic weaponry available now–and that’s on the drawing boards of the military-industrial complex that studies war-making–there will come warfare that will make even World Wars I and II pale by comparison. We know that Armageddon looms.

But, again, this is not Satan’s number-one assault on this generation.

Then, his number-one assault must be to bring all the world into a hatred for God’s chosen people, Israel, I can hear some surmising. Certainly the words of the prophet Zechariah can be seen materializing into reality before our amazed eyes:

The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. 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 are gathered together against it.”

We have gone over many times how this is an all-important plan of Satan–to destroy that people. God’s ultimate salvation plan would be thwarted, were this to happen, because the Lord’s promises would have been proven false. The fallen one has made great strides in bringing all against Israel, and this assault certainly continues—sometimes seemingly unabated.

Yet, as integral to Satan’s war on God and man is to his fiendish intentions, the destruction of Israel is not his number-one objective in assaulting this generation. Time after time it has been seen that the most powerful plans are often the simplest. So it is with Satan’s plan to destroy as much of humanity as possible in the short time I believe he is aware he has left.

I am convinced that Satan’s number-one priority is to convince as much of mankind as possible to do away with one particular scripture. That’s it! Just do away with one Scripture, and the devil’s plan will blossom to full bloom…and men, women, and children will be swept into the abyss.

Satan’s number-one priority is to convince America’s Christians that Jesus wanted, above all, unity of belief. Jesus Christ wanted us to accept that unity of all religious systems must be achieved–that His followers must learn to tolerate each other and all other “believers,” no matter their “beliefs.” If this happens, all wars will be eliminated, because–Satan wants us to believe–all wars are instigated in one way or another by religious intolerance.

Secondly, the devil wants us to believe that the real gospel involves the realization that we must not be judgmental. This, you see, is closely related to intolerance–the basis for all hatred, bigotry–and, well, for wars.

If we just would not be judgmental–the rant goes– we would tolerate all religious belief systems. This would produce unity, which is what Christ taught. He wanted all “believers” to come together in unity. Thus, the “progressives” of the religious world within Christianity exclaim they are correct in saying we must accept all ways to God–ways proposed by each and every religion of the world.

Strangely, it is only Christianity that, in actuality, overtly hangs onto one way only!

John 3:16 has been replaced today in the church, particularly as the most quoted by younger people. Statistics bear out this contention–statistics that I don’t recall at the time of this writing. The Scripture that has replaced John 3:16 as the most-quoted Scripture is the following: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matt 7:1)

This is the verse that is thrown in the face of every Christian who witnesses that Jesus is the only way to salvation. We are not to “judge” others, or their religions.

Like all Scripture taken out of context, a case can be made in this instance that convolutes the Word of God. This sounds so pious and condemning of being judgmental–of intolerance. But, the meaning in context of the Scripture is that we must judge rightly, righteously. One does that by first making sure one is in right–that is righteous—relationship with God through Christ. That is the teaching of God’s Word about having good judgment. Unless we have the mind of Christ–are subject to Holy Spirit guidance–we cannot judge another. In Christ, we are discerning of truth and of the false.

But, the father of lies has convinced an ever-growing number of Christians and, of course, multiplied millions of others, that the new Scripture personifying Christianity is Matthew 7: 1, rather than John 3:16.

However, that replacement attempt does not constitute Satan’s number-one priority to which I’m referring here.

What, then, is Satan’s number-one priority that supersedes all other priorities in his assault on the world today?

It is this: That one certain verse must be forever done away with in the minds and hearts of those who claim Christianity. To do away with this Scripture means there will one day come acceptance of all other religious systems. An ecumenical system will one day amalgamate into spiritual unity that will give worship to Satan’s man, Antichrist.

That verse is this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the father but by me” (John 14:6). Get rid of that truth, and the way will be clear for there to be unity and tolerance. It will forever do away with judgmentalism. We heard Pope Francis give lip service to this new “tolerance,” by implying there are many pathways to God. Jesus said, however, that He will one day say to those who fall victim to such satanic convolution of God’s Word: “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:23).

Aldous Huxley had published in 1932 his futuristic novel Brave New World, in which every facet of humanity came under central control of the ultimate, despotic government. The author described some pretty amazing technological tools for the times for use in enslaving all peoples.

Evidence mounts that our own generation is moving swiftly into a new, troubling world, and the tools Huxley’s fictional world utilized seem like child’s toys by comparison with what is in view now. The technologies that have developed truly constitute what could be termed the “big brother” of those technological instrumentalities described in the long-ago novel. More about that in due course. For now, let’s look at the intrusions into everyday life that increase with each passing day.

Not long ago I received a troubling news report about a small town near where I once lived in northern Arkansas. The town is about an hour away from Memphis, which lies to the east. The chief of police was acting like a Nazi thug, as best I could determine from the report. The headline of the story was “Police State Comes to Arkansas.” The police chief reportedly said, “[Police are] going to be in SWAT gear and have AR-15s around their necks.” He said further: “If you’re out walking, we’re going to stop you, ask why you’re out walking, check for your ID.”

The head policeman said that while some might be offended, they shouldn’t be. “We’re going to do it to everybody,” he said. “Criminals don’t like being talked to.”

One of the town officials backed the chief of police. He said: “[The citizens] may not be doing anything but walking their dog,” he said. “But they’re going to have to prove it…. This fear is what’s given us the reason to do this. Once I have stats and people saying they’re scared, we can do this,” he said. “It allows us to do what we’re fixing to do.”

The chief of police added, “To ask you for your ID, I have to have a reason,” he said. “Well, I’ve got statistical reasons that say I’ve got a lot of crime right now, which gives me probable cause to ask what you’re doing out. Then when I add that people are scared…then that gives us even more [reason] to ask why are you here and what are you doing in this area.”

Individuals who do not produce identification when asked could be charged with obstructing a governmental operation, the policeman said. He added that he realized what he was proposing was much like martial law, but that he really didn’t care.

The report gave statistics on the fact that increasing percentages of towns, especially some of the larger cities, are using SWAT teams to do routine patrols, following the models in other parts of the world.

In one area of the beleaguered city of Detroit, the Nazi-like tactics–or perhaps Soviet-style tactics–were recently employed against citizens. Government officials decided to cut off a large portion of the power grid because there wasn’t enough cooperation from the citizenry. When the levels of cutting off air-conditioning weren’t satisfactorily complied with, the authorities cut off all power to the grid. This was done to “send a strong message” that the orders must be obeyed, one of the officials said without apology.

Now to the latest technology that surpasses the imaginations of even Huxley and George Orwell. But, this is real, not fictional, technology that has already been proven in places like the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2011. The technology mentioned here is one of the least draconian of the many that are in development and even in use in some areas of the world.

A new gadget built by Diehl Defense, much like a portable Electro-Magnetic Pulse ray gun, can disable a vehicles electronic circuitry rendering it useless in battlefield or pursuit conditions… Police departments and militaries around the world will likely grovel over the device. The official website for Diehl Defense explains the use for the device in a convoy protection scenario reading, “The new HPEM (High-Power-Electro-Magnetics) technology protects convoys against improvised explosive devices (IEDs), can stop getaway vehicles and prevent unauthorized access to limited access areas… HPEM sources can be used for personal and convoy protection, for instance, to overload and permanently destroy radio-based fuzing systems. In contrast to conventional jammers, the HPEM convoy protection system is also effective against new types of sensor-based IEDs. Enemy vehicles with electronic motor management can be stopped inconspicuously by mobile and stationary HPEM systems (car stopping) ( Shepard Ambellas, “New Police Toy Resembling ‘Ray Gun’ Can Disable Threatening Vehicles Via EMP,” Intellihub News, September 16, 2013).

Move over, Captain James T. Kirk. The phaser is here, now. And it’s apparently set to stun America’s own citizenry at some point as policing technologies incrementally take over our lives!

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16). The beast system that will make Huxley’s fictional dictatorship seem child’s play by comparison is approaching rapidly. You don’t have to be a part of that new, deadly world. Accept Christ today and not Antichrist.

“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).