There is coming, according to God’s Word and the Apostle Paul, a particular deception that will ensnare the world of people who oppose the Creator of all things. When thinking on 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 about “the lie” Paul mentions, it seems to me there can be but one sort of “lie” that Satan would be so determined to foist upon humanity left behind after the Rapture of the Church. Here is the prophecy:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess. 2:9-12)

Lucifer, the fallen one, has always sought to separate man from the Lord and His governance. Satan was successful in accomplishing his goal when, in the Garden of Eden, Eve fell victim to the serpent’s seduction and then Adam willfully joined her, thus believing Satan rather than the Lord.

God then promised the supernatural seed through mankind that would eventually produce a Savior who would ultimately destroy the serpent and overcome his great lie that separated God and man. Jesus is that seed, the Redeemer of mankind. He said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Jesus is the only Way to forgiveness of sin, which separates man from God. This is what is meant by the first Scripture I and many other young children learned in Sunday school: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Paul, the great apostle and prophet, foretold in the 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 account that the “lie” the Antichrist regime will impose upon those left behind on earth after the Church is taken to be with Christ forever will involve the refusal to believe “the truth.” They will reject God’s way to redemption. They will deny that Jesus Christ–the Truth–is the way to salvation.

The “lie,” then, will be wrapped up in a grand deception that Christ didn’t truly come–in Jewish flesh–to die for the sin of man. This, after all, is the “spirit of Antichrist” about which John warned:

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:1-3)

That “spirit of antichrist” lie was intrinsic within Hitler’s Nazi regime. The Jews were painted as “Christ-killers and the scourge of mankind,” not as the chosen people through whom God brought His Only Begotten Son into the world to seek and save lost mankind. That future Fuehrer–the satanically empowered son of perdition–will likely mesmerize the post-rapture world with a lie that denies Jesus Christ ever came to be the sacrifice for mankind. As a matter of fact, Bible prophecy paints him as the one who comes in place of the real Christ. He will claim to be the Savior. He will sit in the temple of God on Moriah in Jerusalem, declaring himself to be God! (See 2 Thess. 2:4; Matt. 24:15.)

I believe the groundwork is being laid today for the “lie” that will doom much of the world’s population after the Rapture. The lie will have to be part of a fearful crisis of some sort. The disappearance of millions will certainly provide a crisis that will have the attention of the peoples of the world. Any leader who can answer the question of what on earth has happened will get the instant attention and the adulation of a panicked world.

As mentioned above, Planet Earth is being prepared, I’m convinced, for just such an answer as the great world leader that will be one day recognized as Antichrist will concoct. A news story of a number of years ago, but which is still quite relevant today, gives more than an inkling of the groundwork being laid for that “lie,” I believe.

It has been the subject of movies for decades–but what would REALLY happen if aliens visited earth? This may sound like a topic for conspiracy theorists or mad UFO obsessives, yet this week, science’s finest minds gathered in London to debate that very question. The conference, The Detection of Extraterrestrial Life and the Consequences for Science and Society, was held at the high-brow Royal Society HQ in central London.

It is often said the discovery of other civilizations would shatter world religions. Delegates were not so sure. Professor Ted Peters, a theologian, briefed the meeting on some survey results that suggested that rather than undermine religious beliefs–whatever the faith–it would strengthen them, by making God’s creation seem even bigger and more wonderful.

Not everyone agreed. British physicist Paul Davies thought Christians would have a problem, given the central belief that Jesus died to save us. If we discover other civilizations, it would raise the awkward question: Why just us?

(Nick Pope, “If the Cosmic Phone Rings…Don’t Answer,” 1/28/10; http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/2828017/Should-we-be-offering-hand-of-friendship-to-ET.html).

The “lie” of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 could well bring into its orbit and make totally believable 1) universalism–the deception that all people are God’s children, and there are many ways to salvation; and 2) the notion that Jesus Christ couldn’t have been the Savior, else He would have to die on other worlds for those inhabitants and for others in other universes.

With the way psychologically and demonically paved for there to be a massive UFO invasion during the Tribulation, millions looking for explanation of why their world is upside-down will undoubtedly readily believe such a lie–the lie telling them that the ETs who have just removed millions of rebels from earth are now come to rescue the world from oblivion.

I believe the prophecy that tells of this very event might well be found in the following description given in God’s Word:

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (Rev. 13:13-14)

Our world is filled today with great deception. Lies come from many governmental leaders, media sources, and even from many people in the pulpits of America. It is incumbent upon each who names the name of Christ to be discerning in these closing days of the Church Age. Lost souls hang in the eternal balance.

Jesus said in His Olivet Discourse, as recorded in the Gospel according to Luke: “And there shall be…upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity” (Luke 21:25b). Moving forward deeper into 2015, it becomes increasingly obvious that peace in the Middle East is foremost on the minds of the leaders of the major world powers. Distress over the possibility, even the probability that nuclear conflict might eventuate in the region causes perplexity of the most portentous sort.

Absence of peace in the world, and particularly in the region surrounding modern Israel, creates at this late moment in the fleeting age a vacuum into which the prophesied end-of-days leader will one day vault to power. Antichrist will climb a platform of peace upon which to launch his most terrible campaign of conquest. We get some idea of this supernaturally imbued man’s spectacular rise and reign through the Old Testament prophet Daniel:

And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many.” (Daniel 8:23-25b) It is a strange, deadly peace that is prophesied to serve as launching pad for the beast, as he is termed in Revelation chapter 13. Paul, the apostle and prophet, gave dire warning about that esoteric peace that will pervade in the days approaching the time of the end: “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

Paul foretold that this murderous peace will come immediately following the “thief in the night” break-in upon an unsuspecting world of earth’s inhabitants. (Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-7.) This refers to the resurrection and translation of the saints of the Age of Grace–the Rapture. The apostle, as he did in speaking of the rapture in 1 Corinthians 15: 51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, used personal pronouns to indicate exactly the people about whom he was prophesying. Concerning those alive at that future time, Paul used “we,” “us,” and “our” to indicate Church Age saints and “they,” “them,” and “those” to indicate the lost–the unbelievers–who will be left behind when the stupendous event–the Rapture–takes place.

There will be a cry for peace and safety leading up to this time of world-rending intervention by Christ, and an even more urgent demand for peace and safety following that calamitous event. I infer from my study in the matter that the left-behind people who “say peace and safety” seem to be saying also that “now we have peace and safety.” I’m convinced that this is the peace of Daniel 8:25 perpetrated upon planet earth by the king of fierce countenance, who will by peace destroy many.

Today, leaders of the planet’s most powerful governments consistently fret over the boiling pot the so-called Holy Land presents in threatening to again bring the nations into world war. Other potential conflicts are cause for concern. But it is the building potential for all-out war between Israel and its Islamic antagonists that has the premiere diplomatic powers-that-be in “distress” and “perplexity.”

Particularly, it is the building potential violence between the Jewish state and a soon-to-be nuclear Iran that brings forth the cry for peace and safety. European Union (EU) leaders, for example, are frustrated over the peace that eludes all efforts.

EU leadership, as well as all other leaderships, have solid ground for concern that the volatility could boil over at any time and ignite conflagration in the region. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once declared that Islamic nations will one day watch the destruction of its most hated enemy, Israel. He has been quoted on his website for years as saying: “Surely, the day will come when the nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime…when the destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the issue.”

Concerns about Iran’s nuclear development and the nations’ diplomatic elite’s frustration over not knowing what to do about the threat might remind the student of Bible prophecy of another predicted situation. The current angst over Iran’s threat evokes thoughts of an apparent note of diplomatic protest that will be issued during a future Iranian (Persian) military action against Israel.

Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? (Ezekiel 38:13)

The powers of the West, and even Saudi and others in the Middle East, will send a weak note of diplomatic protest. There will still, apparently, be an inability to deal with the Iranian (and the accompanying coalition of nations’) threat to world peace. The indecisiveness and the cry for peace and safety will ultimately bring the beast to power. He will have the answers to foment the deadly peace people want. It will be such peace that will serve as Antichrist’s launching pad to absolute power.

Israel today stands in the bull’s eye of rage. This is true in the case of being targeted by the Jewish state’s perennial antagonists, the Arab and Persian Islamist enemies. It is true in the case of the entire international community, whose constituent nations see Israel as the congestive blockage to regional and world peace. But it is the growing antagonism by United States presidential administration operatives that is most disconcerting while this beleaguered planet wobbles toward a time of unprecedented trouble.

As a matter of fact, that coming time of unparalleled strife that will bring all nations to Armageddon is termed “the time of Jacob’s trouble” by Isaiah the prophet: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7a).

And, it is Jacob’s trouble–the prophesied end-of-days dastardly treatment of Israel by the nations of earth–that will cause the God of heaven to bring them to Armageddon. This is what the prophet Joel foretells: “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (Joel 3:2).

This will be the gathering of the nations of earth predicted in the book of Revelation:

“For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty…And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Revelation 16:14, 16).

This will be the culmination of mankind’s dealing treacherously with God’s chosen people, the Jews. The promise made to Abraham by the Lord includes severe repercussions for anyone who would curse the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

God’s declaration is most dramatically validated by looking at twentieth-century history. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime made hatred of and genocide against the Jew their focus of the unalloyed evil they spewed. The ashes of the Fuhrer and of his Nazi colleagues are scattered in ignominious disgrace across the landscape that Josef Goebbels and the Nazi propagandists arrogantly boasted would be über alles the all-powerful homeland for their thousand-year Reich.

Any consideration in research of Germany’s history involving the last two years of World War II and the years immediately following that most terrible of earth’s conflicts to that point must acknowledge that it was as if the very wrath of God was upon the nation. Such documentation includes black-and-white film footage of German men and women forced by Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower to walk by the skeletal remains of thousands of Jewish corpses–thus, Eisenhower stated, so that the German people and the world would never forget the Holocaust. Its aftermath would forever be recorded.

Yet today, even mainstream news journalists are observably fuzzy-minded in consideration of the genocide that took perhaps six million Jewish lives as well as the lives of other peoples. They show their loss of memory by not jumping full-force down the throats of diabolists like one-time Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who when president of Iran regurgitated the lie that the Holocaust is a fable conjured by the Jews of the world. Rarely is there a repudiation of such blatant lies coming from the would-be destroyers of the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

Tragically, the refusal to educate generations subsequent to the time of World War II on the truth about the insane treatment of the house of Israel is leading to a future time of even greater atrocities, thus judgment, according to God’s prophetic Word. The God of heaven will react violently–according to Bible prophecy–more violently, even, than He reacted to the death-dealing of the Nazi demoniacs:

“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 be gathered together against it… it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:1-3, 29).

We come to the question posed by this article’s title: “Israel Betrayed by U.S.?” The article’s title is in the form of a question because like so much of this American administration’s dealings, the “transparency” presidential candidate Barack Obama and then President Obama promised is not forthcoming. Obama’s intended dealing with Israel is wrapped in an impenetrable fog of political doublespeak.

It is becoming clear, however, that this president is not moving America closer to Israel, but farther away with each day that passes.

By not providing push-back against such betrayal, Congress and the Church, and the American people are complicit in the betrayal. It’s past time to provide such push-back, along with prayers for this once great nation.

Ezekiel’s Gog-Magog prophecy continues to form before the eyes of a world of geopoliticians and media, who are, for the most part, oblivious to just how seriously should be taken matters concerning the oil riches of the Middle East. Central to present day exigencies, relative to those Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophecies, is the complete lack of belief or understanding that ALL of the region given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remains now and forever the land of Israel. This refusal by the nations of the world to accept that this land belong to , in God’s Holy View, His people, the Jews, will be the catalyst that will ultimately bring about the Gog-Magog attack, and, as a matter-of-fact, the war called Armageddon.

The scriptures I would like to examine for the moment are the following:

“After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. “Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.” (Ezek. 38: 8-12)

God was foretelling, through his prophet, that this leader from the north of Jerusalem—Gog—would lead a coalition of tremendous numbers against God’s chosen people, the Jews of Israel. Now, the important thing to see, for our purposes in this brief essay, is the designation “the land”.

God has Ezekiel prophesy that the people of the land of Rosh (Russia) will be led by this end time general into “the land”. God also calls it “the mountains of Israel”.

You see, this is All—every bit—the land of Israel, in the View of the Creator of all things. Likewise, the ”great spoil” this end time general called “Gog” will think an evil thought to “take,” belongs to Israel—every bit—according to the land Grant God gave Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

This tells us that Gog is coming to take the riches of the Middle East, which we know to be, primarily, the vast oil reserves of the area.

I’m quite aware that Israel presently possesses very little of the oil reserves. How could it, as that land is presently configured, contain much of the oil of the region? Currently, it is but a few dozen miles long, and a few miles wide. But, this is not God’s view of Israel. Remember –Israel is ALL of that vast region outlined in His land grant. And, Gog, and his hordes will—I think it has become obvious—want the oil that pools beneath the whole region.

Today there are indications that the leader of the land of Rosh—Vladimir Putin at present—is eyeing the region God considers “the mountains of Israel. The Russian president is leading his nation to form relationships that might, in the not-too-distant future, become tempting beyond his, and the others of his kind’s capability to resist. Oil just might be the fuel that fires up the prophesied ambitions of the Gog-Magog juggernaut.

On-going news accounts present constant reminders of Putin’s ambitions for the region and beyond. Energy is the topic, and dynamic rearrangements are swiftly taking place. The Russian bear is taking a hard look at where to go next to satiate its voracious appetites. Likewise, China will be a major force in the Mid-East invasion toward Armageddon, I’m convinced, according to the kings of the east prophecy found in Revelation, chapters 9 and 16. It is an oil-thirsty behemoth, with it’s burgeoning industrial base and ambitions. Russia wants to be at the center of controlling its own destiny, in regard to securing fuel for its own ambitions. Vladimir Putin now seems permanently ensconced in the Kremlin, with no internal opposition to thwart his megalomania.

One thing sure, a future leader from the land called in ancient times, “Rosh,” will look southward and think to garner for himself the grand prize of oil reserves. Whether it will be Putin, or a successor, who will get that “evil thought,” oil seems the ingredient for the latter times that will fuel Gog’s ambition.

A friend e-mailed some time ago with a statement I found quite interesting. The person, a citizen of Australia, first reported catastrophic wildfires burning in her country. She informed that many of these were set by arsonists. The few and far between rains had, she wrote, been mostly along the coasts, and when the rain fell further inland, most missed the catchment areas, the basins for catching and storing rain water. The situation was dire, due to many months of drought-exacerbated fires. Much prayer was needed to bring God’s intervention into the situation.

She then said the following, which particularly got my attention:

“We are not only facing a water and fire crisis and a future food shortage. The increase in violence has been great in the last few years. Regular home invasions, street killings and drive-by shootings were not heard of over 5 years ago here in Sydney. The increase in terrorist threats, racial hatred, etc., all add up to an uncertain and unstable future. Despite all this, people have still been flocking to the New Year’s store sales and going on holidays. (School resumes here at the end of January). There is little fear of God or desire to return to godly morals. It is disturbing to me how blind and rebellious, are the people of this nation…”

My friend then thanked me for prayers for her country, then said:

“I’m now praying Lord Jesus please come soon. I’m more than ready to leave. I’m spiritually tired and I am constantly upset by the wickedness that surrounds me each day…”

My thoughts turned immediately to one word that is seldom used in modern times to describe total exasperation with life’s circumstances. The word was used in reference to Lot, during his time living in the infamous ancient city of Sodom. My friend’s words: “I’m spiritually tired and I am constantly upset by the wickedness that surrounds me each day,” were substantially the feelings of Abraham’s nephew, Lot, just before the Lord rained wrath upon Sodom.

The Apostle Peter wrote about this, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Pet. 2: 4-9).

Jesus prophesied that it will be just like those days of Lot in Sodom, just before He comes to take His Church to Heaven.

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Lk. 17:28-30).

My friend in Australia is not alone in the frustration she feels. Looking around us today, I certainly do get vexed, don’t you?

Horror stories inundate our hourly news. More and more those reports involve the most heinous type of activity. Pedophiles and other perverts seem to be proliferating within our supposedly “civilized” society. Terrorism is on the rise, while most Americans seem to be happy with their shopping trips and living in their bubbles of relative affluence. Children are murdered in the womb for convenience, then their remains are sought for use to prop up the rest of us lucky enough to have survived the abortionists.

Israel is at the center of world controversy –even hatred—and no one seems to make the correlation between the fact and the lateness of this prophetic hour.

The name of Jesus is becoming hated and mocked, while false teachers and false gods are aggrandized by Satan-controlled news and entertainment media. It’s all, well, vexing. This is a sure sign we must be nearing that moment Christ will call us to be with Him forever. Certainly, while we must be reaching those around us with the message that Jesus Christ is the only salvation for them, it is time that those who belong to Christ look for the Blessed Hope (Titus 2: 13).

Jesus’ words of forewarning ring in spiritually attuned ears today as never before.

When His disciples came to Him on the Mount of Olives and asked the Lord when He would come again, and what would be the sign of His coming, the very first and second indicators He gave in answer were the following: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt. 24:4-5).

I’m sometimes teased by my family –those closest to me–when I get on a soapbox to talk about Bible prophecy, world conditions, and what the Bible says about this or that. Perhaps, sometimes, my pontification is espoused just to be heard, rather than being of any spiritual good. We are all human, and we say things that mean little. We sometimes waste our and others’ time with our verbiage.

Jesus’ words were powerful every time He spoke. He wasted none of His or others’ time, like we do with our verbosity on occasion. So, when the Lord who created all that is –who IS the Word (John 1:1) says that the first sign to look for in terms of watching for His return is those who come saying “I am Christ,” we had better take heed. Thus, because what follows is the second sign –deception of an unusually virulent sort.

Jesus, by forewarning that people would come in His name, saying “I am Christ,” is, I believe, saying two things we should carefully analyze. First, He is saying that people will come in His name. They will invoke the name of Christ to get the ears and minds of many interested and to encourage belief in what they are claiming. Second, Jesus meant, I am convinced, that these people will be saying: 1) they, also, believe in Jesus Christ; and, 2) some will also claim that they are actually Jesus. These will claim to be Jesus, the Christ, returned to earth.

The first of these indicators are in abundance, in my view. As a matter of fact, those signs are right in front of us every time we channel through our television programming. The false teachers and false prophets are there every night. They claim Christ as being at the center of all their ministries’ activities. In the name of Jesus Christ, they preach and teach false doctrines that feed on viewers who believe the lies that God is like a genie in a bottle. He will give us anything and everything we want, if we but use the power that is in our tongues. We speak it, and God must fulfill our fondest desires. We put our “faith” into action by sowing a seed –usually dollars in significant amounts—into their ministries. They claim we are guaranteed healing, no matter what, if we just believe strongly enough in our own “faith” that God will heal upon command. They sound for real, because they use the name of our Blessed Lord Jesus.

They make merchandise of the foolish in their audiences, just as the Apostle Peter forewarned:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Pet. 2:1-3).

The second of the first two forewarnings Jesus gave involves evil ones who will, the Lord said, say, “I am Christ.” The first meaning of that statement is, I believe, that these will say –in their deceptiveness—that Jesus is indeed Lord. They will be deceivers, nonetheless. But, the application to Jesus’ prophecy I would like to consider here is the other meaning wrapped up in the statement “I am Christ.”

There have been many who have claimed the title of “Christ” down through the centuries. However, that claim has become particularly pronounced in these latter times, as we see all the other end-time indicators simultaneously developing, and coming wave after wave –like convulsing birth pangs of a woman in labor. The following excerpted pieces of an article from a number of years ago well illustrates the point:

“At first glance, the congregation gathered in a warehouse in Doral, Fla., seems like a typical Hispanic evangelical group. There’s the 10-piece band, the singing and swaying, the whooping and hollering. But look a little more closely. There’s not a cross in sight. The lectern is emblazoned with a near replica of the U.S. presidential seal, except that it reads in Spanish, government of god on earth. Off to the side stand three burly guys in dark suits with Secret Service-style earpieces. When a door by the stage opens, the guards leap into action. They surround the man with slicked-back hair who emerges and escort him to his seat. When the crowd spots him, it goes wild. People chant, ‘Lord! Lord! Lord!’ It quickly becomes clear that they’re referring to him. ‘It’s Jesus Christ himself!’ a preacher on stage announces. ‘Let’s welcome Jesus Christ Man!’ In the rapturous eyes of his flock, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is, in fact, the second coming of Christ. As the head of the Growing in Grace International Ministry, he presides over a sprawling organization that includes more than 300 congregations in two dozen countries, from Argentina to Australia. He counts more than 100,000 followers and claims to reach millions more through a 24-hour TV channel, a radio show and several Web sites…” (Arian Campo-Flores, “Meet the Minister Who Says He Is Jesus Christ,” by Newsweek, Feb. 5, 2007).

Jesus foretold that these two things –counterfeit Christians and counterfeit christs—will mark the days just before His return. He told believers how to react to such deception: “And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” (Mk. 13:21-22).

Point is that, just as the Lord predicted, these deceivers are among us –and are right up in the face of this generation. Sadly, rather than following Jesus’ instruction, “Believe him not,” regarding any person who makes these false claims, huge numbers within Christianity are embracing the deceivers and the feel-good gospel they proclaim.

A sure signal –among all the others—that we are nearing the moment when we hear the shout: “Come up hither!”

Many names come to mind when thinking of individuals who have caused great consternation among the generations of earth-dwellers over the millennia.

We can immediately bring them to the surface of our cogitations. Adolf Hitler stands pretty close to the top, does he not, so far as people who have troubled humanity during their time is concerned. His was perhaps the most genocidal regime ever, although if we could hear from some of the other generations of human history–for example, that under the regime of Antiochus Epiphanes—we might hear good evidence for those tyrants being the worst ever. Christians under some of the Caesars and holy Roman emperors could also tell horror stories, giving names of dictators who bedeviled them.

Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator, is another who has troubled the minds of historians and the rest of us in more recent times. He murdered, it is estimated, between 30 and 40 million of his own people, based upon his paranoid concerns that they were out to topple his rule.

Mao Tse-tung, the beast from China, Pol Pot, of Cambodia, and Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi strongman known as the “Butcher of Baghdad,” are other troublesome names of recent vintage. And we might throw in guys like Iran’s late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and even its current tyrant, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, as candidates for the most troubling names in human history.

It is such an agonizing thing to do, writing about the next troubling name after bringing to mind all of the above horror-blighted names of history, that I can scarcely do it. But, I feel I must, because it is a name that is growing in disrepute, and in hatred among this present generation. The person whose name I will write about is dividing the peoples of Planet Earth, just as He said His name would do.

It is doubly agonizing for me to write, because evidence of this growing hatred is already well underway, even in the heartland of America. It is, as a matter of fact, manifesting itself in my own community. So, I didn’t have to go to far distant sources or lands to make the prophetic point that we are indeed nearing midnight of this Church Age (Age of Grace).

Proof of the growing antagonism to the name is observable in the excerpted portion of an article from a newspaper very near my own home. That’s right. Right in the heart of the Bible belt. And, I must tell you that Arkansas was once listed as one of three of the states that have the most people who believe that the Bible is the Word of God, a supernatural book directly from the mind of the Creator. Although this article is from some years ago, it represents a growing contingent of those who would marginalize the name in question.

Little Rock city directors should apply discretion in the words they use when praying before board meetings, Mayor Jim Dailey said Tuesday night. Dailey’s statement followed the board’s receipt of a memorandum from City Attorney Tom Carpenter in which he cautioned board members about using certain words in prayers.

Prayer to open a board meeting is not unconstitutional but can cross the constitutional line of separation of church and state if the prayer emphasizes one religion over another, Carpenter wrote.

In the memorandum, Carpenter advised board members to avoid phrases such as “In Christ’s name we pray” or “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost” (“LR directors discuss prayer options,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Thurs. Sept. 7, 2006).

The above report, I realize, doesn’t equate with people considering the name of Jesus in the same castigating way people view Hitler, Stalin, et al. But, again, the marginalizing of the name of Christ is taking place in the heart of the Bible belt. The world at large is on the fast track to bring that holy name into hated status on a global scale. The being with the worst of all names –Satan—wants the name of Jesus to become the equivalent of the worst, most terrifying figures of history. Satan has sown –and still sows— in the minds of men that Christianity should be seen as narrow-minded bigotry and hatred, as proven in the Crusades, where, Christ-haters imply, many were murdered in the name of Christ. The tactic continues to work. Tragically, it is becoming a tactic that even convinces some pastors in churches who fall for and preach the line that to hold to thought that there is one way to God is foolish at best and hatred at worst. By preaching and teaching that there are many ways to God and heaven, that the Bible is actually just a book written by men in order to show us how to just get along, these preachers and teachers are calling Christ a liar –thus putting His holy name in the category of the many tyrants of history who led people down the pathway to destruction.

But the Scripture says:

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

There is coming a time at the edge of eternity that is awesome in its prospect. Every human being who has been born on this fallen planet will give absolute acknowledgement of the name that is above every other, the blessed name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Rom. 14:11).

A friend once sent me an article that sparked the thought. The ancient times and these troubled times during which we live are seemingly connecting, much like a string, when in a circle, comes together at each end. This is just what Jesus prophesied:

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Lk 17:26-30).

The ends of the metaphorical string of linear history are coming together in a religious sense, just as in all other areas of life on Planet Earth. Proof is found in that article sent me some years ago:

“It has taken almost 2,000 years, but those who worship the 12 gods of ancient Greece have finally triumphed. An Athens court has ordered that the adulation of Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Athena and co. is to be unbanned, paving the way for a comeback of pagans on Mount Olympus…” (Greek gods prepare for comeback, guardian.co.uk/international/story, Helena Smith in Athens, Friday May 5, 2006).

Things have only gotten worse –much worse since that time. Neo-pagans are taking –indeed have for the most part already taken–over the so-called post-Christian culture in every “civilized” society on earth, it seems. Europe has for decades now been moving back toward ancient roots of anti-God practices. The Netherlands, in particular, has declared all anathema that might be considered Christian. The Scandinavian nations are frozen in the advancing glaciers of hedonism. Most of Europe is turning out the Gospel light, to the extent the God of Heaven will allow. Continuing with the story above, we see the endtime attitude that pervades this generation of earth-dwellers:

“The followers, who say they ‘defend the genuine traditions, religion and ethos’ of the ancients by adhering to a pre-Christian polytheistic culture, are poised to take their battle to the temples of Greece. ‘What we want, now, is for the government to fully recognise our religion,’ Vasillis Tsantilas told the Guardian. ‘We will petition the Greek parliament, and the EU if that fails, for access to worship in places like the Acropolis, for permission to have our own cemeteries and, where necessary, to re-bury the [ancient] bones of the dead.’”

Those who are attuned to God’s prophetic Word can hear echoing in those demands the woman astride the beast, as depicted in Revelation, chapter 17. Antichrist’s regime will, no doubt, accede to these demands –at least for a time.

The United States of America is not far back in lining up for the return to paganism. As a matter of fact, in some ways, this nation leads the way. No other sector of earth can so afford, in wealth, thus in time, to immerse itself in the self-indulgence that leads in the opposite direction of God’s plan for mankind. The entertainment-mad masses eagerly grasp at pure fiction that blasphemes God, who sent His only begotten Son to die, so that they might be redeemed from the sin in which we, apart from Christ, are so hopelessly mired.

The current forced acceptance of Sodom-like societal changes, with news and entertainment media, and the liberal political pundits destroying anyone and everyone who opposes homosexuality makes it clear we are in prophetic times. The deliberate efforts to generate hatred for those business owners that won’t, because of Christian inhibitions against sodomy, provide services for same-sex marriages, bear irrefutable witness that the wholesale return to vile times like occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah is well underway. The phenomenon is far more than mere curiosity. It is manifestation of an insatiable hunger for gods other than the God of Heaven.

Let us who name the name of Jesus not fall prey to the seducing spirits and doctrines of devils that have invaded in this last time.

Many years ago, I put together (was general editor of) a book with a number of prophecy scholars, broadcasters, and writers. That book was called Foreshocks of Antichrist. The compilation of chapters dealt with issues and events of the times, issues and events the other authors and I believed significant in considering prophecies that surrounded the coming of Antichrist to power, as foretold in chapters of the books of Daniel, Revelation, 1 John, and others. That was about 1996, I think, and I believed, at the time, that conditions could not ripen much more so far as the world’s being ready to reap the bitter harvest the Antichrist will bring was concerned.

I was wrong, of course, which proves we must never be too quick to think that things can’t get much worse. They can, and have, gotten worse, since my great, now deceased, colleagues such as Dr. John Walvoord, Dave Breese, Zola Levitt, and many others, dissected the issues of our time with the omniscient scalpel of God’s Word in that Harvest House book almost 2 decades ago.

Back then, Israel was in a peace process –just as now. Then it was Yasser Arafat, Yitzak Rabin, and Bill Clinton working on the Oslo Accords. Peace was in the offing, and some thought this was the covenant in the making that would bring Daniel 9: 27 to fruition. But, Rabin, prime minister of Israel, was assassinated, and Bill Clinton soon fell into the Monica Lewinsky quagmire that exposed his infidelities and held the nation’s rapt attention for months.

Earthquakes came again and again, seemingly in greater numbers and intensities. The Middle East teetered constantly on the edge of igniting into major conflict in that region, and beyond. It looked more and more as though the world could not move into a mode that was any more prepared for the coming of Antichrist and his global dictatorship. But, I was wrong. Things could get worse –much worse.

The next shocker that stepped up signals of the prophetic times occurred Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Giant, fuel-laden passenger jets slammed into the twin World Trade towers in lower East Manhattan, and into the Pentagon, and another aircraft headed for the nation’s capital was forced into a Pennsylvania field by heroes on the plane. Planet Earth seemed to go into an even higher level of stage-setting for the coming Antichrist. Fear spread among Christians and non-Christians alike, and churches –you will remember—were filled the following Sunday. I, myself, was asked by my pastor to speak to my own church about these startling events. It was a time of trepidation about the future and reflection on how to best cope under the changed circumstances. It was a foreshock that had overshadowed other terrorist attacks and other events of recent times. Terrorists from the Middle East –the land of the Bible, and of Bible prophecy—had turned up the heat on the Armageddon boiler.

Things seemed to settle. Then came fears of Saddam Hussein developing weapons of mass destruction. This meant, also, an economic stranglehold on the oil supplies of the world, if he could get into position to hold Middle Eastern oil hostage, and to threaten Israel and other of his neighbors. The tension again was raised. The fast track to Armageddon seemed back on the rails.

Fear that Armageddon lay right around the next geopolitical corner was not assuaged, while George W. Bush and the American military planners and state department forged military alliances for the assault on Hussein’s Iraq. The alliances were less numerous than those put together by the first President Bush to be sure, but nonetheless, they were more powerful in ability to accomplish the task due to advancing technologies for war-making.

The battles for Iraq succeeded, but the larger war on terrorism rages still, while the whole world waits for the next proverbial shoe to drop.

Europe looked like the next major foreshock to the coming tribulation and Antichrist’s regime of global government. The talk and actions of trying to forge an EU Constitution for a time had all of us looking with great wonder at developments, in consideration of prophecies in the book of Daniel. But, again, the foreshock –for the moment—seems to have fizzled just a bit, with the EU showing signs of fiscal crumbling.

The greatest tsunami ever to be recorded, following the great quake in the Indian Ocean, stunned Asia and the rest of us as well. More than 285 thousand people are believed to have lost their lives –maybe even more. This event, combined with the most prolific and record-setting hurricane season in the history of record-keeping, at the time sent national and international news media to us who study and comment on prophetic matters, in an almost frenzy of wanting to know if God was telling Planet Earth something.

The foreshocks, when they manifest themselves –the birth pangs— continue to get stronger. The longer the lull between contractions, the more shocking the calamities that follow seem to be. This might be the potential Caldera-supervolcano of foreshocks— silent, seething, building, swelling, while God’s cup of wrath fills to the brim. We presently watch what many refer to as a building bubble of pending catastrophes. The economic insanity has every nation on earth filled with distress and in perplexity. All-out war in the Middle East is about to explode, with Israel looking closely at Iran’s nuclear program that threatens to destroy the Jewish state. But, for some reason a preemptive strike that would ignite conflagration continues on hold, as if the very Hand of God is preventing it from happening.

We are in a lull. The lull has brought apathy among Christians that itself dangerously smacks of endtime prophecy: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Mat. 24:44).

Refusal of the current American presidential administration to acknowledge that God has any say one way or the other in the affairs of man, much less any business meddling in the conduct of the American state department’s dealing with Israel and its antagonists, is a foregone conclusion. After all, Mr. Obama has himself stated that America is not a Christian nation.

I must say that I agree with this president on that one point. The United States was never a “Christian” nation, in the sense that America turned en masse to total commitment to following Jesus Christ. That has never happened. However, this country, since its earliest stages of planning by the founding fathers, has had woven into its national documents of inception Judeo-Christian principles of God’s prescription for conducting life and government.

Based upon that easily provable truth–because all one has to do is to cursorily scan the founding documents to understand biblical influence–it’s easy to know that America is a nation under providential watchfulness, to say the very least. God, in starkly plain language, spoke through prophetic omniscience to what will happen when anyone, be it individual or corporate, deals treacherously with His chosen people. Therefore, for anyone–including the president of the United States or any other member of the government of this nation–to ignore what is said about interacting with Israel in the Bible, from which the founding fathers so obviously gleaned wisdom to form this nation, is foolhardiness.

I realize stating that governmental leaders don’t recognize God in their governing isn’t a profound revelation, because all of humanistic government ignores the Creator of all things. I just wanted to get the fact stated as to the real crux of the problem regarding lack of lasting peace in the Middle East and the world. The administration and the state department, it is obvious, gives God’s Word on the matter of Israel no weight whatever in considering policy toward the Jewish state. They forge ahead, setting timelines for producing a two-state solution to the “Palestinian problem” as they see it.

Mideast envoy at the time George Mitchell once stated that he saw the problem of Israel’s making peace with Palestinian leadership as something that must be done within two years. The former senate majority leader, chosen by President Obama to deal with the differences between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli leadership, made it clear how he–thus, how the Obama administration–viewed the hold-up to peace in the region.

Mitchell got in a bit of trouble at that time by declaring that the U.S. would withhold support if Israel didn’t go along with the 2-state solution.

The Israeli government at the time told him the U.S. could withhold support. Israel didn’t have to borrow to take care of itself. The Obama Administration quickly back-pedaled, but the damage to relations was already done –the cat out of the bag, so to speak regarding how the president, himself, thinks about America’s long-time ally.

All of the back-pedaling the Administration could or can now do cannot obfuscate the truth. It continues to  try to hide its disdain for Israel’s perceived obstinacy in preventing this president from having a clear pathway to establishing the desired two-state configuration.

Israel is always met with intransigence when dealing with the Palestinian Authority, as with most all among the Islamic community. The Israeli leadership is growing weary of the one-sided abusiveness, and of the pressures from the American and international leaders who insist Israel is the problem in disrupting the “Roadmap to Peace.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in expressing his feelings on the matter, said, “It is the Palestinian Authority that needs to change its ways–certainly not the Israeli government.”

Obama, it is obvious to this observer, continues to see the Jewish state as the holdup to his getting glory from making the perpetually elusive peace the international community seeks. He recently stated that he would push harder than ever to get a peace deal in the Middle East, once the mid-March, 2015 Israeli elections were done.

To answer the question within the article’s title–“Israel betrayed by the U.S.?” –it seems for now that substantial influence within the U.S. Congress is saying, “No.”

It is encouraging to see the reaction to see the reaction to the Israeli prime minister’s speech before the joint session on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. He received tremendous applause for most every point he made. He did not back down from his responsibility to protect his nation against the growing Iranian threat. Most in the chamber obviously agreed with his take wholeheartedly.

If America joins the rest of earth’s nations in the gathering against Israel, as prophesied by Zechariah in Zechariah12:1-3, her betrayal will mean America’s doom. All nations who come against the Jewish state, God says, will be cut to pieces. Israel, on the other hand, will remain no matter what, the God of heaven declares in the strongest possible terminology.

“This is what the Lord says, ‘He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar–the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,’ declares the Lord, ‘will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me'” (Jeremiah 31:35-36).