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Are we there yet?
For those of us who have raised children, you might remember the question. There was a commercial, as I recall, that used the question to emphasize one product or the other in a humorous way.
Children in the back seat of the car in the commercial kept asking “Are we there yet?”
We who transported our young kids on those times–especially on longer trips to Grandma’s or other destinations–have heard that question, often in whining tones as time went on during the longer trips. I certainly remember hearing it. And I’m sure my parents heard it on those trips from Pekin, Illinois, where we lived when I was a child, on the road to Hampton, my grandparent’s home in south Arkansas.
At this late moment of the Church Age I, myself, seem to be whining this question, and I’m hearing it from others on a growing basis.
“Are we there yet?”
It is coming from God’s children–believers in Jesus Christ who, like myself, sometimes grow weary,or vexed—as ol’ Lot might have put it while enduring to the end his time in Sodom.
“Are we there yet?” That is, how long before we reach the end of our Lord’s tolerance for the evil flourishing all around us while we keep “looking up,” as my friend, the late J.R. Church, used to put it at the close of his Prophecy In the News TV program each week?
Each and every day–actually, each and every news cycle—we’re inundated with end-times storm warnings. And it seems as if the words of warning from the chief prophetic meteorologist of all history is speaking directly to those who, as commanded by Him—are “watching” in order to discern where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.
Jesus gave the signals to look for as earth’s inhabitants near the outbreak of history’s most virulent turbulence–that of the Tribulation era. The following is that storm warning.
“Are we there yet?” Is that great storm of the ages about to invade at this particular time? Let’s listen again to that Heaven-sent forecast that we can rely on as 100% accurate, because it was issued by God Himself.
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, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matt 24: 6-13)
Heaven’s forecast, of course, covers a broad scope of history, so many parts of this Olivet Discourse prophecy by Jesus apply to much of history that has already unscrolled. Let us very briefly dissect this warning first in terms of its broad, historical sense.
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars…”
Hundreds of wars have afflicted humanity since Jesus spoke these words. The greatest wars of all time, World Wars I and II, have caused the deaths of millions. The Romans waged war on the Jews, the Temple was destroyed, and the Jewish people scattered to all the world.
“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…”
As a matter of fact, it has been the ethnic disputes and warfare that have wrought the deaths of millions across the world.
“And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places…”
Earthquakes have continued to rumble throughout history, while the wars have brought famine and disease to countless generations. We have seen lately in our brief time on the planet lately a tremendous increase in these things.
“All these are the beginning of sorrows…”
These great troubles have been accumulative, indeed been like birth pangs, growing more intense and coming in greater frequency.
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”
The history of hatred of the Jews is in full view of the eyes of the world. The Nazi Holocaust is the number-one sign of history that highlights the satanic hatred God’s chosen people have endured. Their rejection of the very name of Jesus Christ and their being blamed for His crucifixion have been the basis Satan has used to incite the world against Israel.
So history has proven the absolute accuracy of Jesus’ forecast. But it is the question ”Are we there yet?” I wish to address with regard to whether this generation has reached the moment when the Lord will say “enough is enough” and call believers to Himself so the greatest storm of all history can rage upon a world ripe for judgment.
We must place the same template over what is going on at this very moment to try to help answer: “Are we there yet?”
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars…”
The most profound threat of nuclear conflict might now be in the offing. Even the Cold War could not match the danger. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was effective, as the world’s two greatest superpowers were able to control escalation into man’s final war.
Not so now. There seems no control, as the power centers with the nuclear weapons are scattered around the globe and many decision-makers among the most diabolical of their leaders seem bent on having their way, regardless of possible ramifications of all-out nuclear war.
The primary cause of the conflict again centers around ethnic differences and demands. Greatest among these conflicts is the hatred of the Jews and of Israel by their neighboring countries.
And that hatred has expanded to include many within nations of Europe and even the United States of America.
The seas and waves of peoples are roaring, in that the protests against the Jews and Israel are front and center in even what is generally considered the civilized west.
At this very moment, even some among the Jewish people themselves are shouting along with the Israel-haters, “Stop the genocide” and “From the river to the sea.”
As Jesus forewarned, these Jews on the politically ideological left are “betraying one another.” The genocidal rage is building swiftly toward another holocaust. Jesus also had a forecast about this evil that will mark the very end of the age.
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).
And hatred is building, too, against the Church–all believers in Jesus Christ and His message of being the one and only way to salvation (John 14: 6).
The comment by a legal defense fund for Christian persecution states the following:
Biden is empowering the radical Left to wage a surreptitious war on our Christian faith – prayer, churches, the Bible, and even Christian kids sharing their faith in school are all under attack. The Biden FBI has even placed spies in churches and targeted “radical traditionalist” Christians for investigation…
We’re in court right now defending a teacher who was banned from praying anywhere a student might see her.
I’ve never seen anything like it. (Jordan Seckulow, ACLJ Executive Director)
While unbelieving Jews must undergo the Tribulation storm to bring forth a remnant that will bring about God’s great promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, believers of this Church Age (Age of Grace) will be taken (paralambano) to be with Jesus in the clouds of Glory–in the Rapture. All indicators are that we have come to be right smack in the breaking turbulence of Jesus’ forecast of the end-times storm.
And this is why I believe we can answer with a resounding “YES!” the question: “Are we there yet?”
Scanning a Fearful Future – Part Two
Terrible times like no other in American history lurk somewhere in the future, according to FOX News Channel’s Glenn Beck. He is joined in his stated apprehension for what is coming by thousands of American citizens. Many of these are fear-filled Christians who look to Beck and others to inform them of the proposed terrors to come, and to tell them what to do about it. I continue to hear from some of these through email on a weekly, even daily, basis.
I would like us to look briefly at developments across today’s socioeconomic landscape, thus to examine as analytically and as fairly as possible the portentous matters that give Beck and others fodder for their doomsday scenarios.
Economics-minded forecasters great and small watched the stock market bubble build during the days preceding the Lehman Brothers collapse of 2008, speculating wildly what the bubble’s burst might bring. That financial aneurysm, they determined, would certainly rupture–and, of course, it did. Governmental insanity created by ultra-liberal politicians saw to it that people with champagne tastes and beer drinkers’ budgets for years received home loans they didn’t have much more than a prayer of ever repaying.
We are now familiar with the terms “Freddie Mac” and “Fannie Mae.” We are equally acquainted with names such as Barney Frank, Charles Schumer, and others, who–in the name of “fairness” to those who couldn’t afford housing like the more affluent–demanded these be given the loans anyway, despite the fact the recipients didn’t have the income or collateral to support that level of debt.
Rather than govern the housing industry responsibly, the elected officials invested with the responsibility to oversee things, in concert with their Wall Street cohorts, foolishly threw caution to the fiscal winds. A banking crisis of unprecedented magnitude was thus created, with the housing bubble rupture setting in motion bank failures and threats of even greater crises.
Calls for massive bailouts to avert what the president of the United States and others in government and media speciously screamed would otherwise be world-rending calamity brought about the most devastating crisis of all. Trillions of dollars were, in effect, created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve Bank to save entities “too big to fail.”
The totally irresponsible sleight-of-hand accomplished only the creation of an exploding national debt that most likely can never be repaid. Decisions made by some of the same people who help create the problems strapped on the back of American citizens financial burdens with which generations far into the future will have to deal.
The resulting economic uncertainty deepened an abyss-like recession that more soundly thought-out measures would have surely lessened in severity. Jobs, as we know, are being lost; businesses are closing their doors; deflation or hyper-inflation–the experts can’t figure which—might collapse the American economy within a near-time frame (which the experts can’t predict, either).
The stability of the global economy hangs in the balance, with the other nations and their monetary gurus wondering about the financial fate of the U.S. and its all-important dollar. And, make no mistake: Under present world economic structures, the fate of the American dollar is absolutely critical.
Enter Glenn Beck at the tip of the gloom iceberg. And “iceberg” is a viable term here because the things he and others are forewarning are indeed chilling. Statements the TV and radio show host make almost daily send shivers down the spine of many of his viewers and listeners. He says things like (I paraphrase), “Change is coming, and when it happens, you won’t recognize your country. You will wake up next day, and it will no longer be America as you’ve known it. And, it will happen just that fast. I can’t tell you when that transformation is coming, but it’s coming.”
Beck forecasts the same astonishing change for the entire world in his proposed overnight transformational moment. His words sound almost out of the pages of Bible prophecy from the Pre-Trib view, don’t they? But the change he predicts is tied almost exclusively to the earthly, not to the ethereal–almost, but not entirely, as we will soon find.
Economic collapse, thus societal rearrangements of apocalyptic dimension, is at the heart of his fearful forecast. He implies that we will, perhaps, awaken that morning to a monetary cataclysm–our dollar as worthless as the deutsche marks of the Weimar republic of Germany just before Hitler’s meteoric rise to power in the 1930s. The FOX program host often raises the real probability, in his view, that inflation, which is on the rise, will skyrocket to astronomical levels when the great transformation he fears takes place.
He gives some key commodity future dollar amounts for what he claims the experts tell him will be exponential price rises. A small bag of sugar could be as much as $60 or $70. One ear of corn could be $11 or higher. A loaf of bread will likely be $24. Just under a pound of coffee could be $77. Fifteen ounces of orange juice will likely be $45, according to Beck’s forecasters.
A Hershey chocolate bar, standard size, will cost $15.50, his experts say. Now, that is certainly a crisis in the making if it is an accurate prognostication. Chocolate lovers I know would probably join the rioters Beck believes will rage in the streets once cuts to federal government give-away programs have to be made.
Next week, we will think a bit on what a changed America might look like if truly effective remedies to deal with Mr. Beck’s fearful vision of a new socioeconomic paradigm are ever implemented.
Terry James Prophecy Line 