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Miracle Nation
- The plagues of Egypt—Genesis 7:14–12:29–30
- The parting of the Red Sea—Exodus 14:21–31
- The parting of the Jordan River—Joshua 3:14–17
- The falling of the walls of Jericho—Joshua 6:6–20
- The sun and moon standing still—Joshua 10:12–14
- The angel slaying thousands—Judges 13:19–20
The miracles performed on behalf of God’s chosen nation are prolific.
These astonishing movements of God to bring forth, establish, and perpetuate His chosen people as promised are the miracles we know the most about because they’re so profound in their impact. Whereas secular writers and pundits have most often relegated these miracles of God to legend and lore, evidence steadily emerges to validate the historical facts the Bible has chronicled. Archeological evidence of the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is recent proof of the truth of God’s Holy Word.
Certainly the monumental ways God has dealt with Israel and its enemies are important to consider when thinking on prophecy yet to unfold. The Lord has mightily intervened with Israel’s path forward in the past, and He is prophetically scheduled to deal just as mightily in the Tribulation era. As a matter of fact, the primary goal of the Tribulation era–Daniel’s seventieth week—is to purge Israel and bring forth a remnant of God’s people who will be part of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
But, to the believing observer of these days and all that is transpiring on an hourly basis, it is undeniable that God is dealing at this very moment with His chosen people and their enemies as surely as He has dealt with them in the past and is scheduled to do in the future.
I refer specifically to the if not supernatural way, almost certainly the heavenly influential way Israel has again pulled off an intervention against their enemies’ plans to inflict their satanic evil.
We saw this heavenly influence years ago when the Jewish state, with the malicious computer virus Stuxnet, reportedly ruined almost one-fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. Targeting industrial control systems, the worm infected over two hundred thousand computers. Iran’s fast-track program to produce a nuclear weapon came to an abrupt end–for the moment, at least.
Now we witness, I absolutely believe, God’s intervention–His influence—that was used to protect against something big in the way of Israel’s enemies’ plans to again attack Israel. The following reports the matter, with which by now most are familiar.
[Around 2,800 Hezbollah operatives were wounded across Lebanon as communication devices exploded.]
[Most of them were] Hezbollah operatives [who] were wounded across Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon when their communication devices mysteriously exploded at around the same time, according to Reuters and local reports.
Several hours after the incident, Hezbollah said in an official statement: “At 15:30, a large number of pagers exploded, many people were injured. A Lebanese girl and two Hezbollah members were killed in the incident, along with a large number of injured.”
“An extensive security investigation is being conducted to find out the reasons for the explosions. We pray for the speedy recovery of the wounded and call to be careful of spreading rumors that help the enemy. The resistance is in the highest readiness to defend Lebanon and its people,” the statement read.
A Hezbollah source told the Qatari Al Araby Al-Jadeed: “Israel remotely hacked into Hezbollah’s unique communication devices and blew them up.”
In the evening, Lebanon’s Health Minister said there were at least eight dead and over 2750 wounded, including around 200 in serious condition.
The son of Ali Ammar, a Lebanese parliament member for Hezbollah, died as a result of a pager explosion, two security sources tell Reuters.
Among those wounded in the explosions is the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, according to Iranian state-owned Mehr News. In addition, the Saudi outlet al-Hadath said senior commanders of Hezbollah were wounded. (“Mysterious Explosions Come as Israeli Leaders Hold ‘Dramatic’ Discussion about Northern Front,” All Israel News Staff, September 17, 2024, Updated: September 18, 2024)
Since the explosions of the pagers, hundreds of other devices used to communicate between terrorists have exploded, killing or wounding many who held them.
Lest one is tempted to think these were innocents, with the exception, sadly, of the young girl being killed by the exploding devices, these terrorists had been told to use the pagers in order to not be tracked through their cell phones by the Israeli IDF. Thus, their nefarious plans to attack the hated Israel were foiled. This warning to the terrorists to use the pagers were given through recorded orders by a high-ranking terrorist leader, so the proof of the pagers’ use to do Israel harm exists in a digital paper trail; Israel’s actions were both brilliant and warranted.
I recently heard one American senator or US representative state he wasn’t the least bit worried about Israel’s destruction by its millions of enemies that surround the Jewish state. He stated that God’s Word assures their perpetual existence.
I say “Amen” to that sentiment. Israel is the miracle nation among all the nations of earth. That truth continues to be played out through hourly news cycles. Undoubtedly we will see much more of that truth on display until the Rapture of the Church–at which time we will “watch from the balconies of Heaven,” as my great late friend Chuck Missler was fond of saying.
End-times Ethnic Eruption
The satanically spawned Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, seems to have opened in a major way an end-of-the-age Tribulation stage-setting prophecy.
Jesus Himself gave the prophecy as part of the Olivet Discourse while sitting with His disciples overlooking the Temple Mount:
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation… (Matthew 24:6–7).
The prophecy we need to look at in this fascinating time in history is Jesus’ statement that “nation will rise against nation” in an unprecedented way just before He returns to set up His Millennial Kingdom on earth. When giving only a cursory glance at these words, we think that, yes, that’s certainly true. Many a nation has risen against another nation just during the past several decades. There have been many wars, and other wars are looming. But, is this the kind of “nation against nation” reference Jesus specifically gave?
To answer this, we must look at the Greek language–the language from which the New Testament was translated into English. Jesus was in actuality saying these uprisings would be unusual in that they would be based in ethnos–the Greek word for “nation.” They would be ethnic in origin. They would pit ethnic, or racial, group against ethnic group.
It is equally true that ethnic factors have been the cause of many wars throughout the centuries. The Arabs and Jews–as a matter of fact, many ethnic peoples against the Jews—marked the conflicts of Old Testament times. Almost without exception, those early wars were “ethnic” in origin.
Things haven’t changed. Arabs and Jews still have the ethnos factor at the heart of their differences. And, never in history has the conflict been more virulent. Israel is hated like no other people—and by almost all of the nations of the world. The Islamic nations—mostly Arab—are blood-vowed to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea and wipe the Jewish race from the planet. Some Arab leaders of the past and other leaders–e.g., Iranian leaders—continue to want all Jews expunged from the region, and even off the planet, as we hear incessantly through their protesting US college-campus minions. They have made it their national policy through their oratorical invectives. There have been conflicts in the century just passed involving peoples of the Caucuses, the Balkans, etc., and horrific slaughters in Africa and other places–all based upon ethnic differences.
Now, this hemisphere is experiencing the burgeoning effects of ethnic conflict. The invasion of illegal aliens from points at US borders north as well as south, welcomed by a presidential administration that seems conjoined to the globalist intention to bring America into compliance with their New World Order aspirations, is threatening to erupt into violence within even smaller cities.
This invasion affecting even the smaller towns is easily discernable through reports like the following:
At this moment, there is a tremendous amount of discussion on social media about what is happening in the city of Springfield, Ohio.
The Haitian population of Springfield has become very large, and Newsweek is reporting that it is being alleged that “some of these people have been killing and eating folks’ pets”…
Springfield, which had a population of around 60,000, has recently been at the center of the immigration debate, with its Haitian community growing to between 15,000 and 20,000 over the last four years, according to city officials.
The past few days have seen locals report that some of these people have been killing and eating folks’ pets…
At a recent city commission meeting, one local resident was literally begging for officials to do something.
He claimed that migrants are “grabbing up ducks by their neck” and “eating them”…
“I really challenge you guys to get out here and do something,” he told the meeting.
“These Haitians are running into trash cans, running into buildings…they’re flipping cars in the middle of the streets…”
The man added: “They’re in the park, grabbing up ducks by their neck, and cutting their head off and walking off with them. They’re eating them.” (“Are they really eating our pets?”, Rapture Ready News, September 10, 2024)
Point is, Jesus said that a great, swelling uprising involving ethnic strife would grow to be a major crisis during the Tribulation era–that last seven years just before He returns to put an end to all of the conflicts at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11).
This ethnic eruption we’re witnessing each day in our headlines is something to watch closely, so far as being observant for prophetic end-times signals is concerned. The unrest constitutes yet another indicator of where this generation might stand on God’s prophetic timeline. We can say with a degree of certainty based upon study of God’s Word, and belief in the pre-Trib Rapture of Christ’s Church, that because of the burgeoning ethnic unrest, in conjunction with all of the other indicators we see interjecting themselves with growing intensity and frequency, Jesus’ shout, “Come up here!” can’t be far distant.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Prophetic Forbidding
As I incessantly remind readers, stage-setting for prophetic fulfillment continues at a blistering pace. This includes the minutest details God’s Word provides to give believers a heads-up on where the world stands on God’s prophetic timeline.
One such detail covered here fairly recently is the matter of the powers that be commanding that we stop eating meat. Further details of the Ephesians 6:12 cabal ratcheting up this demand have emerged to the surface of the intended Great Reset dictatorship the likes of Klaus Schwab and the “powers and principalities” have planned for the rest of us.
It is all part, of course, of Schwab’s statement involving the proposed Great Reset: “You will own nothing and love it.” —Something like that…
Paul the apostle was given the prophecy to pass along. His words now intrude into the daily headlines thanks to the global cabal that intends to rule a New World Order.
Here is the prophecy I believe indicates exactly where we stand:
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:1–5)
Specifically, a recent news item I believe involves this prophecy spoke to me as a profound indicator of the lateness of this hour leading to the Tribulation era. I apologize for its length, but it adequately explains elements involved in bringing us to this point in the growing demand to abstain from eating meat.
A new £38m UK-wide centre is set to research alternatives to animal proteins, particularly from plants, fungi, algae and meat grown in labs.
The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (“NAPIC”) has a mission to develop “acceptable and planet-friendly alternatives to animal proteins.”
Funding has come from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (“BBSRC”) and Innovate UK, as well as three universities and the James Hutton Institute.
A statement by the organisations said supplementing traditional agriculture with alternative protein sources was “critical if we are to meet increasing demands sustainably.”
Alternative proteins are derived from sources other than animals and include terrestrial and aquatic plants, insects, proteins derived via biomass or precision fermentation and cultured meat…
Animal agriculture is estimated to produce up to a fifth of planet-warming emissions, and with the global population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, the demand for protein is expected to rise significantly.
Some sources, such as the UN Environment Programme, estimate meat consumption alone could grow up to 50 per cent by 2050.
We need to find more sustainable sources of protein and thankfully there is a huge biodiversity in non-animal sources of protein, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of this…
[In this piece, the writer introduces alternative thoughts on the “no meat” diet.]
Fake meat, synthetic meat, test tube meat, franken meat, clean meat – call it what you will – is the trend to grow meat artificially in a laboratory, and has been attracting some impressive billionaire investment backing and media interest in recent times.
What has been interesting in this era of “fake news” and fact-checking is the number of media articles about fake meat that repeat claims by its commercial proponents that real meat is bad for just about everything, while lab-grown meat is without ethical or environmental baggage – with no apparent attempt to verify those claims.
Beyond the perception that lab-grown meat must be “better for the environment,” another fundamental premise put forward by its animal rights supporters is that it conveniently does away with the need for an animal to die, in order to produce a meal.
Unlike traditional beef production, culturing animal cells in a petri dish causes no harm or pain to a sentient animal, they insist.
But what’s not yet being discussed in any of the “gee-whiz” publicity about lab-grown meat is the back story behind the medium needed to produce it.
According to a prominent Australian animal scientist spoken to by Beef Central, multiplying animal cells to create a form of meat protein in a lab requires the use of a medium based on foetal blood plasma.
Foetal blood is produced by slaughtering a pregnant cow, removing its unborn calf from its uterus, and harvesting the blood from it. While a synthetic alternative to foetal blood does exist, it is apparently prohibitively expensive to produce, the meat scientist said.
So much for “mortality-free” lab-grown meat production. (“Research Centre Launched in the UK to Push Fake Meat and Develop a National Protein Strategy,” by Rhoda Wilson, The Exposé, September 3, 2024)
So it is plain that the globalists’ would-be rulers, such as those within the WEF and The Summit of the Future (scheduled to meet a few days from now to work to implement their Pact for the Future), will forbid the eating of meat.
Most of these want to reduce populations of earth in order to make life on the planet more “sustainable,” as we’ve all heard Prince Charles (now King Charles) of Great Britain lecture about for years. In that regard, they are proposing, through the LGBTQ model and abortion/infanticide route, the reduction of marriage unions that produce children. All of this, of course, in the cause of helping with global warming/climate change—the Mother Earth worship religion they have created that Antichrist’s False Prophet will no doubt have something to say about once the Church is called into Glory by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here again is how to go to Christ and avoid the coming terrors of the Tribulation.
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Power of the Air Evil
While we approach the 2024 presidential election, we’re once again subjected to the evil festering within the mainstream media at every level. Whether it’s general or entertainment news, all, in one way or another, is geared to pump up the party and candidates of their preference and not only diminish, but destroy, all opposition to their view of the way America and the world should be governed. And that way has become radicalized and perverted.
The power of the mainstream media to shape opinion, thus pervert society and culture, is used by the dark force the Apostle Paul called “powers and principalities in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
As I’ve mentioned before, something exciting is building toward a profound event, I believe. God Himself intervened, reached down, and in front of the entire world prevented the assassination of one of the candidates. This isn’t mere coincidence. Something is up. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s exciting to contemplate what that something might be. Jesus told us to “look up and lift our heads” when we “see all these things begin to come to pass.”
Things haven’t changed for the better in the matter of the media’s harmful influence, but have gotten progressively worse since the time leading up to the 2020 presidential election. The article that follows was written in 2019, and I present it again here as a reminder of the evil the nation faces while the November date of electing the next president nears.
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Many an elderly former television network broadcaster doubtless engages in ever-recurring conversations while sipping his favorite evening libation.
“Remember how we once ruled the airwaves?” might be one such conversation starter.
“Yeah. In the old days we could say it on the evening news, and by noon the next day, public opinion would begin to come around,” the commiserating drinking partner might say.
I can imagine a Dan Rather type and some other no-longer-relevant propagandist lamenting as the tonic and gin or bourbon on the rocks burns a liquid trail down their once-golden throats.
“Those were the good, old days,” one shakes his head, blinks, and calls to the bartender for a refill.
“There’s no leadership to ever bring those days back,” I can hear the other saying. “Now they all go their separate ways.… There are far too many of them to ever come together.”
“It almost makes you see the need for the power of dictatorship…for the good of the republic,” the Dan Rather-type says, taking the first sip from his newly refreshed beverage.
“Yeah. We used to at least have that kind of influence over public opinion…for the good of the republic,” the other aging broadcaster puts in.
They must dream happily of when they and their network colleagues had the three-network monopoly. Now, it must be a nightmare that they live through daily. Their personal influence is no more—the power of their profession significantly diminished.
That this is the case is plainly presented in polls taken about how America’s people feel about that profession. Always, news media, as being trustworthy in the eyes of the public, ranks very near the bottom of those polls.
If there ever was a question about why that ranking is so low, we need only to think on the past three years or so.
It would almost seem that our two aging former anchors need not worry for a second about the ability of the news conglomerate to speak with the power of one. The mainstream news media has coalesced in a way that ABC, CBS, and NBC would have never done when they had, collectively, nearly sole power of the air.
It is true that today’s now fractionalized mainstream news media, as individual news forums, draw infinitesimally small numbers of viewers in comparison to the numbers drawn by the big three networks during the good old days. But the power exerted by the new collective—the fractionalized mainstream media—is, I’m convinced, even more powerful than that wielded by the big three those years earlier.
The proof is the absolutely fanatical cohesion that this new media collective has cemented.
Before the months leading up to Donald J. Trump’s election to the presidency, the news conglomerate at least pretended to be independent from one another. Following Trump becoming the Republican candidate and up to the present hour, those news forums have melded as one to destroy this president.
They have, in the process, infected about half of the adults of America with an insane rage that I’ve characterized a number of times as “a reprobate mind”—the same mindset described by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:28.
In this sense, the new mainstream news media is far more effective than the big three that pretended to be independent of each other in trying to shape public opinion. This media today is as driven in its insane rage as are the left-wing, anti-God public they possess. And “possession” is what it amounts to, in my estimation.
I can say this because at the black heart of this propagandist cabal is the chief minion of the underworld. And this is provable, biblically.
Broadcast—at least as originally conceived and implemented—projected out over the airwaves. They were received by the antennae of those who tuned in to the news, entertainment programs, and commercials. So, as the broadcast industry was foundational, that method—“over the air”—was the progenitor of this new mainstream media.
This evil cabal, although fractionalized as being individual entities, is totally conjoined in delivering messages their master director wants delivered.
That director is indeed the maestro—who, for the time being, is allowed to be infernal minister of propaganda to seduce and delude the rebellious among earth’s inhabitants. He is undertaking that goal with a massive effort.
Here is scriptural proof of his temporary right to his position as master of deluding all who will watch and listen:
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:2)
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He is using that power in a literal way to seek out and devour as many as he can delude. He has, during this last three and a half years, managed to seduce and bring into his insane rage nearly half of the adult population of the United States of America, it appears.
But the God of Heaven has not left us without defense against this evil prince and his media minions. God’s Word tells of this protection for the Christian—all who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation:
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
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While carrying out the Great Commission Jesus gave believers, we are, as Paul exhorted, to be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
It’s 2 Chronicles 7:14 Time Again
The matter of whether 2 Chronicles 7:14 was given by the Lord exclusively for Israel was the topic I addressed back before the 2020 election. It is time to address this important question again, as there is still contention over the controversy while we approach the 2024 election that looms like boiling storm clouds above the landscape of these end times.
My mind hasn’t changed in the slightest. The following is what I wrote back in November of the year approaching the 2020 presidential election:
Recently I heard a prophecy teacher–actually one of my favorite prophecy guys—say something like the following: “I hate to burst your bubble about what you probably believe about God’s promises to the church and his promises to Israel. But 2 Chronicles 7:14 isn’t for the church. It is for Israel.”
He then went on to say that the context of that promise makes it obvious for whom it was given. It doesn’t apply to we of the Church Age was his conclusion.
I must take exception to that statement by this man, one whom I respect greatly and consider one of the very top teachers and writers of Bible prophecy today. Let’s have a look at the promise that God, indeed, made to the nation Israel.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
The speaker was talking about whether the United States is in Bible prophecy. He was speaking to the many worries people have as to what will happen to America concerning prophecy yet future. Particularly, as I recall, he was talking about the upcoming 2020 presidential election. People were, he said, wondering about what we should do as believers to seek God’s divine intervention in this election. There are great fears that the opposition party to that of this president has turned totally toward the dark side and is more and more anti-God in their platform goals.
The speaker was intimating that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the Scripture most invoked, but that it isn’t in effect for the Church. It was given exclusively to the Jews the nation Israel.
The basis for my taking exception to my friend’s pronouncement in part is truth encased within the following scriptural areas.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with who is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17)
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8)
God’s Word is the very Person of Jesus the Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead. God the Father sent Jesus into the world as Himself in the flesh. Jesus taught and preached ultimate truth. Jesus and the Father are one–see John chapter 17. Jesus created all that is, see Genesis chapter 1. He did so by the spoken Word. Jesus is the Word. This is made plain in John chapter 1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1–3)
Jesus and the Father, the Lord verifies through His prayer in John chapter 17, are one. Jesus also says that we who believe in Him are one with Him, as He is one with the Father. Therefore His Father’s children are Jesus’ “people,” just as they are God the Father’s “people”.
We are all “one” with God. We are His “people.”
This includes all people of God’s created order who “believe” for salvation as prescribed by God. Those who believe are His people.
Therefore, it is my Bible-based contention that in 2 Chronicles 7:14, the “my people” is referring to God’s “people,” no matter of what era.
God changes not. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
God’s promise to Israel in 2 Chronicles 7:14, in my view, apply to believers of all ages.
It is true that Israel’s “land” was healed on several occasions, after the people had drifted into backsliding and gross idolatry. America, it is equally true, for example, has not experienced what might be considered a complete healing in the sense of Israel in its ancient past.
However, America, again for example, has experienced degrees of “healing.” The great revival movements that came out of the Great Depression was God at work in answering prayers of His “people.”
I believe the 2016 election for president was an answer to the prayers of God’s “people.” It was, to anyone possessing spiritual acuity, a miracle from the Almighty. Certainly, even the secularists –the mainstream media and Mr. Trump’s opponents—were stunned into a form of madness!
Another friend defines the declaration that 2 Chronicles 7: 14 is not for the Church as a part of the Seminary Syndrome.
By this, he means that the products of often self-exalted seminaries sometimes can’t see the simplicity of God’s truth for feeling they have to make it complex to somehow justify their existence as the last word on interpretation of scriptural truth.
And, I mean no disrespect to the men and women who have the prestigious seminary degrees of various flavors. Many, many of these are dear friends.
But, for the Seminary Syndrome to induce them to say such things as mentioned above with regard to God’s dealings with His “people” just smacks of being wrong to my spiritual senses.
I have expressed before that I have the same problem with the Seminary Syndrome declarations that Matthew chapter 24 (the Olivet Discourse) is for the nation Israel only—that the Rapture of the Church isn’t to be found in that great teaching by our Lord.
So please continue to pray in light of 2 Chronicles 7:14 in regard to the 2020 presidential election Our nation still needs healing, as we all know. Admittedly, as this generation seems to be at the very end of the Age of Grace, and at least half of the nation is deliberately moving away from, not nearer to God, it is unlikely that there is time to see a complete healing of America.
However, the prayers of God’s people have and can yet produce miracles within this land upon which God has so richly bestowed His blessings.
That was my admonition for the 2020 election—which, as we all know, turned out differently than many wanted or expected. My admonition is the same for this election.
Now, the nation has exhibited ever-darkening movement away from God, and the reprobate mind of Romans 1:28 seems to have infected much of the population. However, God’s promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 has not changed, even though it looks even to me that the Lord’s time for correction might be near ending and the time for judgment and wrath could be just ahead.
Truth is, the God of Heaven knows the limits of His mercy–and we do not. The promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is still there in God’s Word.
Let us who are called by that Holy Name humble ourselves and pray, and turn from all wicked ways. God has promised to hear that prayer, forgive our sins, and heal our land.
This should be at the center of our unified desire regarding our nation. The matter will then be in His mighty hands. We could be in none better.
America and the Gold
The United States dominated much of this year’s Olympic Games in Paris. More than interesting to me is the gold the American athletes won for the apex nation of the world in relationship to another object of gold. That object is the infamous “golden cup” described in the Bible—first in Jeremiah 51:7 and second in Revelation 17:4.
My fascination centers around the wickedness surrounding the Paris Olympics. The games began and ended with blatant bookends of evil ostentation to anyone watching proceedings from the biblical Christian perspective.
More about my thoughts on all this later.
America burst forth from history’s slow-motion movement with brilliant inventiveness that would mystify if viewed from any perspective other than that of Bible prophecy. The stunning achievements within the mix of that quantum leap continue to engender awe. Human genius almost certainly had to have been infused with supernatural influence in accomplishing the exponential progress humanity has achieved within one hundred years. We have moved, within that time, from traveling at speeds horses can run to streaking at the speed of light through communications technologies.
The United States of America has been the nation at the very heart of the explosion of human technological progress. We have no peer in this regard. Just as God’s hand of providence guided the founding fathers in bringing the country to birth in 1776, so His omnipresence inspired the American genius and industry resident in the nation to achieve things essential to opening the book of end-times prophecy.
The prophet Daniel’s words resonate in our day:
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Daniel 12:4)
This ranks as perhaps the foremost signpost encapsulating our generation’s place on God’s prophetic timeline, when considering the question about whether America is anywhere in Bible prophecy, even if not mentioned specifically by name.
The prophet’s words tell us:
1) There is a book that has written in it the end of all things regarding the human realm.
2) That book was purposely shut, in order to not reveal details about the end.
3) The book was sealed during Daniel’s time, and no one would be able to break that seal.
4) The world would experience a great population explosion near the end.
5) The people of that future time would go at a phenomenal speed, literally to and from points all over the earth.
6) Humankind’s knowledge would increase tremendously.
Many, including myself, believe this detonation of knowledge at the very end includes an understanding about end-of-days prophecies from God’s Word, as well as human knowledge that has erupted like at no other time in history in what we now call the Information Age, which has grown out of the creation of the computer. The major implication in the first part of the prophecy is that the book of understanding end-times matters would be opened at the time of the running “to and fro,” and of the exponential increase in knowledge. Therein is the validation of our claims that this generation is bumping up against the very end of the age, and that the signals we are witnessing today are, indeed, signs of Jesus Christ’s soon return to the earth.
Again, the United States is inarguably the matrix out of which the geometrical progression of knowledge, thus the spectacular increase in our ability to travel to and from anywhere on earth, has grown. The unsealing and opening of the book Daniel was told about by the angel might well have taken place during one specific incident about which we’ve all learned in our rudimentary studies of American history. The occurrence certainly seemed an explosive epiphany, with God reaching down to man in a spectacular fashion. More than coincidentally, I am of the firm conviction, one of America’s most famous founding fathers was the recipient of this brilliant stroke from the heavens.
Benjamin Franklin’s Shocking Experience
Benjamin Franklin, whom we know as one of the key founders of the US, in fact appropriated through his God-inspired genius the key to the greatest discovery of humankind. His use of a key opened up new vistas dreamed of by only a very few inventive minds in previous history.
Franklin believed electricity could be harnessed from lightning. So, he tested his theory in 1752 by using a contrivance we’ve all become somewhat familiar with by way of our history books.
Mr. Franklin was knocked on the seat of his pants in a shocking discovery, as we know.
American Industriousness on Display
Of course, much groundwork was laid by others as well as Americans for the explosion of modern technological achievements. But it is American industriousness—a genius for taking groundwork laid and rocketing into the future with that foundational creativity—that makes the US unique among the nation-states of history. Electricity and its many fantastic applications has continued to power the still-surging explosion of knowledge and travel in the twenty-first century.
Like ancient Babylon, America has been a “golden cup” in the hand of God:
Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. (Jeremiah 51:7)
What a dichotomy! Babylon was considered a “golden cup” when in God’s hand when equating the use of that cup to export the wickedness on a worldwide basis, as described by the prophet!
We see that same “golden cup” next in the hand of the whore of Babylon—the false religious system—as she sits astride the Beast:
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. (Revelation 17: 4)
In both cases—the nation Babylon and the prostitute astride the Beast—God’s Word speaks to His judgment and wrath because of worldwide rebellion against His governance.
To my thinking, this absolute turning from the God of Heaven was manifest for all to see with the graphic display leading into and out of the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
America, which sure looks similar to the Babylon mentioned by the prophets Jeremiah and John, has exported wickedness as have no other people in human history because of the tremendous technologies it has been instrumental in developing.
No such instrumentalities have made this more possible than electricity, computers, satellites, and the burgeoning artificial intelligence. And these are being used by the Ephesians 6:12 minions, both demonic and human, to make the world ready for Satan’s son of perdition, Antichrist.
America could well be pointed to as possibly being that “golden cup.” Certainly our most blessed nation in all of humankind’s history fits the description. And it looks as if the American “golden cup” of exported evil to the rest of the world will be used in God’s righteous indictment as He sits as judge to bring down the anti-godliness described by Jude:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 1:14–15)
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Election Predestination?
The title of this commentary will likely grab the attention of many who are fascinated by the conundrum presented to the finite mind: How can God, who is omniscient, have known in eternity past that most of His creation called humanity would go to a lake of fire prepared for the devil and his fallen angels? Yet God still isn’t willing for anyone to perish; He wants all to come to repentance—meaning that people must have the free will to choose or reject God’s offer of salvation.
Well, this is the wrong article if solving that infinite query is your quest. I mean this title to indicate an examination of this presidential election and God’s omniscient foreknowledge about all involved and the outcome. To what extent is all this predestined by Heaven’s governance?
To those who believe in God being in complete control of everything at all times, there can be little doubt. God reached down on July 13, 2024, and turned Donald J. Trump’s head at the precise moment a speeding bullet was about to enter the presidential candidate’s skull.
Even pundits totally opposed to Trump stated that the near miss was providential. The Lord of Heaven, then, is certainly intervening in America’s electoral process. God Himself has made it quite clear that He is doing so.
He has intervened before—for example, in the 2016 election, many of us believe. Mr. Trump was given almost no chance of winning against Ms. Clinton. But win he did.
However, with the miraculous turn-of-the-head moment as Trump was addressing the rally throng, God asserted that those wanting the former president removed from the process, no matter the method, would not get their way. At least not on that occasion.
What does the Lord’s obvious statement mean in terms of the election this year? I, like you and everyone else, have no idea. The only thing I can add with certainty is that God did make that statement. He does nothing without great purpose. This is especially true when the statement–the intervention—is so blatantly done in front of the entire world.
This makes me quite excited about just what it does, in fact, mean: what it means to America, what it means to the election, what it means in terms of God’s prophetic timeline.
Founder Todd Strandberg’s and my website, Raptureready.com, has at its center, of course, a certain anticipation. That anticipation is found in the prophetic insight Paul gave all believers:
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)
Those who have read my series, “Scanning a Fearful Future,” know my long-held belief is that if America were to suffer a catastrophic fate that would bring the nation down to rubble, the entire world would suffer in a way that it would take decades, perhaps longer, to ever get back to business as usual.
Business as usual is exactly what the Lord Jesus said would be the condition when He next intervenes in the affairs of wicked, rebellious humankind. That condition is outlined in Luke 17:28–30—the “as it was in the days of Lot” prophecy.
Jesus said all of life’s business—buying, selling, building, marrying, and planting–would be going on when He next catastrophically intervenes into the human condition.
A calamity that destroyed the US would be a world-rending matter because the nations of the world are so intricately linked to America.
This being the case, Jesus’ intervention must take place before America’s demise or world-rending circumstances, such as total economic collapse or World War III.
That intervention will be the Rapture of the Church—all who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus told us that it would be just like the day when God removed Lot and his family from Sodom. The righteous will be taken to be with Christ. The word for “taken” is the Greek word paralambanó. It is the word used when the Lord said “one would be taken and the other left” in His Olivet Discourse describing how it will be at the time of the Rapture. This is the same Greek word used by Jesus as recorded in John 14:1–3 when He said, “I will receive (paralambanó) you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also.”
All that said, it is more than obvious that the minions of Ephesians 6:12, both demonic and human, are doing all they can do to destroy America as founded so they can bring about the changed global order essential to establishing the one-world rule of Satan’s son of perdition—the Antichrist.
The following article outlines just how they are attempting to do so with this presidential election. Here is the link; check it out: https://www.wnd.com/2024/08/god-trump-america-and-democrats-all-out-plan-to-steal-the-2024-election/.
Yet the God of Heaven has this luciferian force in derision through God’s Great Restrainer, the Holy Spirit, resident within the Church. The fact that Donald Trump was supernaturally spared that day in Butler, Pennsylvania, is proof of that derision and restraint, I have no doubt.
Again, I have no idea what our Lord is up to in all of this intrigue. But it is fascinating and even infused with great expectation as this November approaches. Has He predestined this election to serve His prophetic purposes?
As the title of our website would have it, being “Rapture ready,” which Paul the apostle exhorted in the above Scripture, is most appropriate. And the Lord Jesus makes that a commandment for the Christians who will be on the earth when He next is revealed, as given in the “days of Lot” prophecy.
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)
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Turkey’s Leader Brings Prophetic Focus
Nothing brings clearer definition to the stage being set for Bible prophecy than the issues and events swirling around God’s chosen nation.
At the moment, Israel is exacting a heavy price for atrocities perpetrated by Iran’s proxy terrorist organizations. The most recent is the assassination of murderous terrorist leaders in Beirut and Teheran. Especially troubling is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh being blown up with a detonation in his room.
The attack was at first thought to be a drone strike by Israel; now it’s been found to be an explosive device inside Haniyeh’s bedroom, I take it. The occurrence was said to be an “inside job.”
Regardless, Israel is seen as being responsible for the assassination, and no doubt that is a correct assumption.
Haniyeh is said to be responsible for planning and implementing the attack and murder of twelve children as they played soccer, when a rocket‘s warhead exploded on the field. The act so enraged Israel’s government that they broke away from their normal ways of retaliation, going not to a proxy nation, but straight to Teheran to take out the head terrorist.
At first it seemd that the explosive was planted in Haniyeh’s room two months in advance of its detonation, and was ignited only when he was known to be occupying that space. This would indicate almost prescient thinking on behalf of Israel’s assassination units, and the thought of that foreknowledge apparently had the terrorists and their associate evil regime in Iran going a bit nutso. It has now been said that the explosive was placed there only two days before the detonation.
The ayatollahs and others say it is an act of war, with Israel striking directly into Iran. It opens up a new level of hostility, and Iran’s regime threatens all-out war.
In view of all this, the Biden administration has sent naval ships in that direction in anticipation of a greatly expanded conflict in the region.
It is interesting to see that things are ramping up between Israel and its blood-vowed enemy, Iran, with this unprecedented attack by Israel against Iran itself. At the same time, another nation-state actor that’s part of the coalition that will comprise the Gog-Magog assault has interjected an equally fascinating element that brings that prophecy into ever-sharpening focus.
Turkey’s leader on Sunday threatened military intervention in Israel to stop Jerusalem’s war in Gaza in a significant escalation of rhetoric from NATO’s second-largest military.
In a meeting with his Justice and Development Party (AKP), President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey “must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine.”
“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” he said, according to a Reuters report.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz came back swinging and suggested Erdoğan would meet a similarly deadly fate as Iraq’s former president, Saddam Hussein, who was executed by hanging in 2006.
“Erdoğan follows in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel. Just let him remember what happened there and how it ended,” Katz said in a message posted to X that included a picture of Erdoğan and the former Iraqi leader. (“Turkey’s leader on Sunday threatened military intervention in Israel to stop Jerusalem’s war in Gaza,” by Caitlin McFall, FoxNews.com, July 29, 2024)
The Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thus makes clearer how Togarmah, regarded as the geographical area of current-day Turkey by prophetic scholars, is moving into the Ezekiel 38–39 alliance. This movement has been growing for some time since Erdoğan took over as president of the country. Turkey, a member of NATO, has been moving more and more into the orbit of Iran and Russia and spewing hateful rhetoric against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish state.
This has caused a number of legislators within the US and the European Union that are part of NATO to call for kicking Turkey out of the organization.
This call for Israel’s punishment by Turkey is seen as unprecedented by a NATO member, following the dastardly murders, rapes, and other evil perpetrated by Hamas against Israel October 7, 2023. Clearly this further sets the stage for the end of the age and the beginning of the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week).
Everything for the Tribulation and the Rapture, which will proceed that terrible time, is tightening into focus as we continue to view things through the prism of God’s prophetic Word.
Spirit of Antichrist-to-Israel Linkage
A decade and a half ago, I presented a chapter in one of my books in which I expressed a firm conviction that God’s Word about the spirit of Antichrist and God’s chosen nation, Israel, were possibly linked in a specific way. Upon reading the manuscript, the publisher’s book-selection committee wanted me to strike my thoughts on the possible connection. Although I had only offered the possibility and wrote it in such a way as to make it only a scripturally based conjecture, I was told that if I didn’t delete that portion, they wouldn’t publish the book.
The committee said it smacked of being a false teaching. That was their only charge against the postulation.
I, of course, did take it out of the manuscript because it was just a small part of a massive volume I very much believe the Lord wanted published.
But things have come to pass in terms of the tremendous wickedness and evil we’ve witnessed, especially lately, that I couldn’t in good faith remove such a portion from a book I was offering for publication today. I believe my earlier conviction is being proven: There is a link between the spirit of Antichrist and God’s people, Israel.
The Apostle John said the following about the spirit of Antichrist:
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)
I think all who believe in Christ for salvation who observe these strange times from the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy have the spiritual capability of discerning the hell-spawned hatred that has suddenly developed against Israel on a global scale. I believe evil is manifesting particularly on a national scale at this late prophetic hour.
A portal to the dimension where demonic entities are held seems to have been unleashed. The Apostle John said, in effect, that the portal was opened to some extent when he was transcribing the words of the Holy Spirit. Certainly we should expect to see an intensive increase in such activity the nearer time comes to the Tribulation.
Evil men and seducers are growing worse by the hour, just as the Apostle Paul predicted. Much of the seduction is carried out against the Jewish people–against Israel—by the evil professors at the university level across America and the world. Students under their wicked inculcation seem to have been possessed by the spirit of Antichrist as they chant, “Kill the Jews,” and, “Wipe out Israel from the river to the sea!”.
John’s words have specific meaning. They are not just idle words, but present the connection, I think, to Satan’s hatred of God’s chosen people and nation:
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.
Jesus, the promised Savior since Genesis 3:15, is the object of Lucifer’s hatred. He has been working through eons to destroy the flesh through which the Savior came into the world. It was Jewish flesh. Satan’s insane rage now is manifest as strongly as ever, perhaps more so, as the time of Rapture and the Tribulation to follow nears.
One report offers proof of the increasing rage against God’s chosen.
There is a massive security presence here as the Secret Service, the Capitol Police, and other federal, state, and local police agencies are deployed in a wide perimeter around the Capitol grounds.
More than 10,000 angry, hostile, anti-Israel and anti-Netanyahu protesters have descended upon the city.
I’ve personally heard some saying, “We will kill all the Jews,” and “Go home, Jews,” and “Netanyahu, you’re not welcome in our country!”
One repugnant sign that I saw on my way to the Capitol read: “Go back home to Europe, Satanyahu.” (“Netanyahu addresses Joint Session of Congress with 10,000 angry, hostile, anti-Israel protestors outside Massive security perimeter established by Secret Service, Capitol Police,” Joel C. Rosenberg | Published: July 24, 2024, All Israel News)
The spirit of Antichrist has been fully unleashed against God’s chosen people. John made perhaps the strongest statement pointing to exactly how close this world is to the beginning of the worst time in all of human history–the Tribulation.
But before that time of horror can commence, Jesus Himself will step out on the clouds of Glory and call all believers to Himself.
Here is how to be a part of that divine rescue from this judgment-bound world.
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Prepping for the Lie
A particular deception is coming, according to God’s Word and the Apostle Paul, that will ensnare the folks who oppose the Creator of all things. When thinking about “the lie” Paul mentions in 2 Thessalonians 2, it seems there can be only one sort of “lie” Satan would be so determined to foist upon the people 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 Thessalonians 2:9–12)
Satan has always sought to separate people from the Lord and His governance. He 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, believing Satan rather than the Lord.
God then promised the supernatural seed through humankind 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 humanity. 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 humans 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 foretold in the 2 Thessalonians 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 says Christ didn’t truly come in human flesh—Jewish flesh, as a matter of fact—to die for our sins. This, after all, is the “spirit of Antichrist” John warned of:
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 the lost. That future führer—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 humankind. As a matter of fact, Bible prophecy paints that future leader 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 Thessalonians 2:4; Matthew 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 instant adulation from a panicked world.
As mentioned above, the earth is being prepared, I’m convinced, for just such an answer as the Antichrist will concoct. We have been given a taste of that preparation taking place for quite some time. A news story from the year 2010, for example, gave more than an inkling of the groundwork being laid for that “lie”:
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 2 could well bring into its orbit and make totally believable 1) universalism—the belief 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, or 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 an explanation of why their world is upside down will undoubtedly readily believe such a lie—the one that the ETs who have just removed millions of rebels from the earth have come to rescue the world from oblivion.
As I’ve related a number of times, I believe the prophecy that tells of this very event might well be found in the following:
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 today is filled with great deception. Lies come from many governmental leaders, media sources, and even from people in the pulpits of America. It is incumbent upon each of us to be discerning in these closing days of the Church Age.
Lost souls hang in the eternal balance.
Terry James Prophecy Line 