Category: last days

Posted in gog magog, israel, last days, psalm 83 war, syria

Will Israel enter the fray regarding Syria?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I am watching the Middle East situation carefully. I have some concerns regarding if the conflagration will widen, and if it does, whether some of the prophesied wars will begin. I don’t know if the time is now or not, but it seems to me that we have had so many near misses of late (in the last 4 years) and those near misses are coming faster and more frequently, that they seem like birth pangs to me, ready to break water and flood the world with Tribulation. That is my opinion. In any case, we know that the last days wars will happen and one of these days they will begin. I just happen to think it will be sooner rather than later.

In watching the news and reading the Old Testament prophets, I noticed something that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman yesterday struck me. He said–

“that Israel does not want to become embroiled in the Syrian conflict, but may have to hit back if it is struck. … Lieberman said that Israel does not want to enter the fray against Syria but added, “We may have no choice, but I hope that everyone knows how to read the map correctly and understand that Israel has no interest in entering the whirlpool of the Arab world.” “

What I believe he was referring to is that Israel is a tiny nation, completely surrounded by implacable enemies. If the situation goes south in Syria, well, Israel is to the south and undoubtedly Israel will receive either purposeful targeting or accidental blowback. Either way, the job of the Foreign Affairs Secretary is to protect the people.

However, when has that situation ever been different? Israel has always been surrounded by implacable enemies. We we do know how to read a map and we do know that at some point every single one of those enemies abutting the tiny nation of God’s people will attack. Many prophecy interpreters believe that battle is prophesied in Psalm 83.

Psalm 83 is an imprecatory psalm, imprecatory meaning calling a curse upon someone or on a nation. In Psalm 83 Asaph is calling for God to intervene against a coalition of nations which are colluding to attack Israel.

The reason some interpreters think this is an unfulfilled prayer is that the particular configuration of nations who are colluding and attacking have never joined up to attack Israel in history past. Though parts of the psalm have been fulfilled and now are history, the psalm has not seen fulfillment in the exactly as described. So they believe it is still future. Here are the first 8 verses to the Psalm:
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar;
those who hate you have raised their heads.
3 They lay crafty plans against your people;
they consult together against your treasured ones.
4 They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
5 For they conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Asshur also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah

The nations named also in today’s modern language, are:

  • Edom & Moab, are southern and middle Jordan.
  • Ishmaelites, Hagrites, and Amalekites are descended from Hagar and Ishmael, and settled in southern Jordan and Saudi Arabia. (Map shows Amalekites being solely in Egypt, again, this is another interpretation)
  • Ammon is norther Jordan. Its capital today is still Ammon.
  • Gebal & Tyre are in Lebanon.
  • Philistia is Gaza.
  • Asshur is northern Iraq and western Syria (Assyria)

So in reading the map, we see that Asaph is pleading for deliverance from a coalition which intends to wipe Israel from the map.

Be advised that there is a lot of disagreement about the purpose of this psalm (imprecatory only? partially prophetic?) and its fulfillment’s timing, (past? present? or still far future?)

One thing I like to do is look at the bible’s end and work backward. We know that in the end, all nations will be against Israel. (Zechariah 12:3). Backing up some, we know that in Ezekiel 38-39 another, different coalition attacks Israel while Israel is dwelling securely. We know that battle is going to take place in the latter days because it says so in Ezekiel 38:16. Also, in Ezekiel 38:22 God says He will rain down sulfur on the hordes coming to attack Israel. This has never happened.

So the coalition named in Ezekiel’s attack are are non-abutting neighbors of Israel. Israel’s abutting neighbors are all named in the Psalm 83 prayer. It is thought that the victory given Israel over the Psalm 83 coalition nullifies them and takes them out of action. So when the second waves of attacks comes in Ezekiel’s coalition, it is subsequent to Psalm 83 because none of the nearer inner circle is named. Logic dictates they would be part of this attack if they could be. Others wonder about Israel dwelling securely, without bars or walls. What could make Israel lower their security vigilance? Perhaps the fulfillment of Psalm 83, where Israel vanquishes all her abutting enemies and is dwelling safely in the land? (Ezekiel 39:26)

If you think of satan’s attempts to get rid of Israel, as Israel being the bulls eye, and Psalm 83 being the first wave, then Ezekiel 39-39 being the widened wave of a larger and further-afield coalition of enemies, and then culminating in Armageddon with all the world coming against her, this seems to be the prevailing thought on the successive prophesied battles of the latter days.

Mr Lieberman is right. Anybody looking at a map can see that Israel is surrounded, small, and in all likelihood, going to be obliterated. However, that is not in God’s plan. As surprising as it is and as it will be to those who dwell on the earth, Israel is in fact an immovable rock, and those who try to dig her up or push her over will themselves be injured. (Zechariah 12:3).

If only Mr Lieberman knew that his nation has the only perfect and strong protector! What comfort that would be as all the missiles are aimed at her, as all the hordes storm the mountains like insects. As the bombs come down, the Lord will personally bat them away! (Ezekiel 39:3)

“The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.” (Ezekiel 38:20).

Not that Israel won’t be harmed at all during the Tribulation, she will, (Zechariah 14:2) but the Lord God Almighty will not let His people nor His designated land be overrun or destroyed at the hands of the Gentiles. He keeps His promises. Though we do see by the map that tiny Israel is beleaguered, beset, and besmirched, she will prevail in the end. That is because God always prevails in the end.

“And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.” (Ezekiel 39:7)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


further reading


Fears of a Larger War in the Middle East
“Will the phrase “Guns of August” one day refer not only to the prelude to World War I in 1914 but also to the prelude to a Middle East war in 2013?  That is the ominous question posed by Roger Boyes, the diplomatic editor of the Times of London and a foreign correspondent for the past 35 years.  “The direction of events in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran should keep us awake at night. History is taking a dangerous turn,” he writes. “The region certainly cannot sustain two wars — Syria’s bloody insurgency and a near-civil war in Egypt — without wrecking established peace treaties and the normal mechanisms for defusing conflict.”

Posted in last days, missile, prophecy, russia, syria

Russia plans to go ahead with Syrian missile transfer, ignoring Israel’s warnings

Posted on by elizabethprata

Russia and Syria are in the midst of completing a deal for Syria to receive a ‘new shipment of anti-ship missiles are equipped with advanced radar that makes them more potent’ reports Haaretz. Obviously this does not make Israel happy. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu met in an emergency meeting with Russia’s President Putin, and Netanyahu urged Russia to abandon the deal with Syria. He said that continuing it might just trigger a larger regional war.

Israel does not make idle threats.

The missiles that Russia is sending to Syria “Unlike the long-range surface-to-surface missiles that stand at the Assad regime’s disposal, the Yakhont anti-ship missile system allows the Syrian military to stand against potential efforts by international forces to impose a naval embargo or a no-fly zone on the country, or to carry out limited airstrikes in support of the Syrian opposition,” according to the report in Haaretz.

This is a significant increase in military capability, and seriously hinders Israel’s ability to carry out strikes in and around Syria, such as taking out forays that Hezbollah make or destroy supply convoys of Hamas.

Russia is unswayed by Netanyahu’s exhortations, and is continuing to send the anti-ship missiles to Assad. This signals a commitment to Assad. The NY Times says “Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday. “

Interestingly this is exactly what the bible says the alignments wold be in the last days. We also know from the bible that there will be regional wars, such as the one described in Psalm 83 where all of Israel’s abutting neighbors and the terrorist groups existing in those nations attack Israel. Or the Gog Magog war described in Ezekiel 37-38 where Russia, Turkey, Iran and others also attack Israel. Or the one in Isaiah 17 where Damascus is destroyed and Syria’s environs are made a waste. Or the LORD’S promise to Israel/Judah that they will finally possess Jordan in the last days just before He comes back to establish His kingdom. (Obadiah 15–21).

But back to today. Times of Israel reports, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in an emergency face-to-face meeting on Tuesday that Moscow’s sale of the S-300 missile defense system to Assad could push the Middle East into war. But Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, evidently unmoved by the dramatic Israeli warning, declared on Thursday that while Moscow was “not signing any new deals,” it would honor existing contracts with Syria, including for the air-defense systems. “We’ve already carried out some of the deal,” Lavrov said, “and we will carry the rest of it out in full.””

This antiship missile, with its described impacts on widening a military capability of chaotic Syria, does seem to be a tipping point.The Times of Israel article explains,

“An Israeli source was quoted as saying that Netanyahu had told Putin the S-300s represent a weapons system that “shatters [Israel’s] qualitative edge,” presumably since it would greatly constrain the Israeli air force’s freedom of movement above Syria and neighboring Lebanon.”

“An Israeli source was quoted as saying that Netanyahu had told Putin the S-300s represent a weapons system that “shatters [Israel’s] qualitative edge,” presumably since it would greatly constrain the Israeli air force’s freedom of movement above Syria and neighboring Lebanon.”

We will wait to see what Israel does. Perhaps the final destruction of Damascus is on the horizon, (Isaiah 17) not that I’m happy about that. Please pray for the millions of Muslims in these areas who do not know Christ and are unaware, or who disbelieve, the eternally final plans that the Lord has for them unless thay beleive on the precious name of Christ.

Posted in last days, perilous times, prophecy

Is the "Day of the Lord" the same thing as "The Last Days"? part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

In two parts, I’m examining a last days prophecy Paul delivered to Timothy. Paul’s warning to Timothy is in 2 Timothy 3, 1-9, and it concerns “perilous times”, or “Godlessness in the last days.” Paul warned Timothy that in the last days perilous times would come, and Paul went on to describe the characteristics of people’s behavior in those last days. Paul begins his warning to Timothy by saying that the prophesied times of difficulty will come in the “last days.” In part 1, I looked at what the “last days” are, and how they are different from the Day of the Lord. In this part 2, I will look at the passage closely and show that how it is commonly interpreted may need a second look.

Here is the passage- It is in the ESV.

Godlessness in the Last Days
1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

People usually interpret this passage as pertaining to the world. As when “in the last days, perilous times in the world will come.” That, perilous times from the world will come. That when sin in the world heightens to monstrous levels, it will be a sign of the perilous times Paul spoke of.

I used to think this way also, and in a way it is still true. Sin gets worse and worse. Jesus said in Matthew 24:12 that “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,” and that shows us that sin gets worse and because of it, people’s love gets colder and colder (that is the meaning of grow cold, ‘to breathe, blow, to make cool’). Later in this same chapter of Timothy I’m looking at today, 2 Timothy 3:13, it says “while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” They go from bad to worse. Sin always gets worse.

But though sin in the world will get worse and worse, the passage specifically isn’t talking of the world here. It is speaking of people in the church. People in the body of Christ. How do we know this? There are several clues.

If you read 1 Corinthians 2:14 in it surrounding context, the passage there is saying in essence, don’t be angry with unbelievers when they act like unbelievers. The world has always been brutal. The world has always presented difficulty to the church.

When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, it was around 67 AD and shortly before Paul was martyred. It was no surprise to Timothy that people in the world were brutal, Christian martyrdoms had been going on since Stephen, our faith’s first martyr. Stephen was killed for the name of Jesus barely a year after Jesus rose to heaven. Killings had been ongoing ever since. Nero’s wave of particularly vicious killings began in 64AD. Why would Paul need to warn Timothy that the world will treat us brutally? Jesus even said so (Matthew 10:22).

The surprise is that the people claiming to be Christian who dwell inside the body of believers will act in the ways Paul outlined. We need to guard ourselves from people on the inside.

The second clue is that Paul warned such folks will have adopted an “appearance of Godliness.” Pagans who hate Christians and treat them brutally do not stop to pretend they are Godly. They just hate.

A third clue that this passage relates to how people inside the church will act is that they are “lovers of self.” Those in the world, pagans, already love themselves. This is not news to Christians and certainly would not have been necessary to warn Timothy about people such as those.

No, I’m afraid this passage sadly tells us to watch out for those who are brutal, false, hating, greedy, treacherous, conceited, etc and will be people who sit alongside you in the pew. Or preach to you from the pulpit. Or teach you in Sunday School class. Now that is a warning worthy of taking heed of!

In case you have difficulty interpreting that the passage from verse 1-9 relates to the church, think on this. First:

Some say that the current evil in the world surely matches the passage and must be a harbinger of Jesus’s soon appearing. Well, the evil in the world is surely awful. They cite the present escalation of evil and say that the events of today are frequent as opposed to evil event that used to be rare and isolated. But are they so rare? They cite the Gosnell baby abortion murders, or the kindergarten massacre at Sandy Hook school. But haven’t people always sacrificed children to Molech? (Leviticus 18:21). Children have always been at risk as society’s most vulnerable targets. Or they cite the New Orleans Mother’s Day Parade shooting, or the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing. Yet enemies have always come by stealth or deceit to kill (Joshua 9). They say that the Benghazi terror attack and coverup, and the current government abuse against citizens with IRS spying or tapping phones, is surely evidence of the world’s descent into evil. But look no farther than today’s North Korea and Eritrea as most oppressive regimes full of abuse and hate against their own citizens, or Egypt and its treatment of millions of Jews in Pharoah’s day. Or they say that today’s shock video of victorious Syrians eating the dead hearts of their enemies is definitely evidence of how far the world has fallen. But the ancient Aztecs and the ancient Chinese of the Tang Dynasty ate the hearts of their enemies.

Eve and Adam rebelled against God, Cain killed Abel, and not long after, Nimrod was the first world dictator. The world IS brutal. Always has been since the fall.

The evidence of the evil in the world is how far it has crept into the church. Jesus said there would be tares sown in with the wheat and that He wanted it kept so until the harvest. (Matthew 13:24-30). Tares (darnel) and wheat look the same until just before harvest when it only then becomes possible to tell one from another. The field of the church is filled with those who are just as Paul warned Timothy about. They infiltrated then (Simon the Magician) and they infiltrate now, but since the last days have progressed so long, the progression of the behaviors Paul warned Timothy against have grown too and now the church is overgrown with infiltrators.

We have our greedy ones, pitching Jesus at you to make money for themselves so they can fly around on their private jets to one of their many homes. We have the unholy, heartless false pastors spiritually abusing their people and tossing them under the bus. We have the slanderous and unappeasable litigating against their own family members over their television station ownership. And boy, the name it and claim it crowd sure do love themselves. The way they preach by inserting themselves into every passage surely is disgusting.

No, the warnings about those to look out for is a warning to us in the last days to look out for infiltrators (traitors to Jesus) who have an appearance of Godliness but deny the power thereof.

The glorious part is that those who are in Jesus have the Holy Spirit in them to help spot these who would make a shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). He cares for His sheep, and cares for His church. After all, didn’t he warn us that these things would happen?

Recently I noted that our pastor was asked to resign because the sermons he was giving for the last many years were word for word someone else’s. He was a plagiarizer. It is a heartbreaking thing to discover you have been worshiping through a veil of untruth. But I was truly grateful to the Lord also, not only because by the Spirit He had revealed this to us, giving us the opportunity to address it in a God-honoring way, but also because He already told us these things would happen. Therefore was I shocked? Yes. Was I surprised? No. Through the pain we were feeling, I praised Him because of His many warnings about false prophets and false teachers and disqualifying behavior throughout the Old Testament and the New. Even right at the end of verse 8 in the passage we are studying today, did the Spirit not inspire Paul to write, “men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith” ?? It made me love the Lord all the more for His care in showing us these things, and for giving us His comfort when when they do happen to us.

If you are in a church worshiping body and are reeling because you’ve experienced deception or brutality by one of the kind of people mentioned in the passage, take heart. The Lord warned us because He loves us! And if you have not been affected by the behavior of any of the church-fakers mentioned in the passage, take heart, because you will! (2 Timothy 3:12). Take heart because He will use your experience for the good to those who love Him, and you will be polished as a jewel of faith in His trophy case. He is equipping you for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:17).

In my opinion, that is our highest calling- service to a holy Lord who loves His own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is the “Day of the Lord” the same thing as “The Last Days”? part 1

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Posted in discernment, doctrine, last days

Discernment: Why is it important?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Justin Peters is an ordained minister and preacher, but is more well-known for his creation of the seminar “A Call for Discernment”. It is an in-depth, biblical critique of the Prosperity Gospel/Health-Wealth false gospel. This false gospel is also known as a Word Faith Movement, perpetuated by Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer and many others.

His bio says that as a teenager, Justin himself attended faith-healing services in hopes of being delivered from his Cerebral Palsy. Though the potential was there to shake his faith in the Lord, in the long run, these experiences had the opposite effect. He says he has learned that his CP is a blessing because it keeps him dependent on God in his own weakness.

What is Discernment and why is it important? Are we supposed to “judge” or not? Are we told to discern even if we do not have the spiritual gift of discernment? In this seminar, Peters shows that discernment is a duty for all Christians, not only to detect issues in Word-Faith preaching, but in all aspects of a Christian’s life.

You might have heard people say, “I don’t need to know doctrine. I am not a theologian. I just loooove Jesus.” Peters says, that is a foolish statement. You cannot know someone unless you study them and know who they are. If you want to love Jesus, become a student of Him, and study His word. It is a false humility to say you don’t need doctrine.

Here is a link to the session’s .pdf outline that you can read along with the seminar clip below.

If you don’t want to or don’t have time to watch the entire video above, here is Todd Friel of Wretched Radio & TV, interviewing Justin Peters, discussing the Word of Faith movement in this 7-minute clip.

The Lord is gracious and kind. He gave us His word in the bible so we would not be unaware of satan’s schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11). I believe the battle is growing more deep and fierce. Satan is scheming mightily to make the unwary drift away (Hebrews 2:1-4). Keep your anchor dug in- the anchor is Jesus. He is the rock, the foundation of our faith. There is no greater joy than in clinging to Him. Never fear: no one can ever snatch us out of His hand. (John 10:29).

Love Jesus by getting to know him, in His word. Doctrine matters. So does discernment. Ultimately the scriptures tell us why doctrine and discernment are important:

“For whatever was written was given to us for our learning, that through patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4 KJV)

HOPE! What a blessed word in dark days! Light shines and hearts melt and love reigns. Hope! Hope in Him, learn about Him, He is the treasure!

Posted in end of days, last days, prophecy

The world’s richest, science’s dumbest, weather’s worst

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is some general news which I feel is of prophetic import. This prophetic import is my opinion, of course 🙂

World’s 100 richest earned enough in 2012 to end global poverty 4 times over
“The world’s 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide four times over, Oxfam has revealed, adding that the global economic crisis is further enriching the super-rich. “The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,” while the income of the top 0.01 percent has seen even greater growth, a new Oxfam report said. For example, the luxury goods market has seen double-digit growth every year since the crisis hit, the report stated.”

This is interesting to me because the Tribulation, though the financial and economic systems will have been crashed and remade into a one world system, will contain the largest gap between rich and poor the world has ever seen. Though millions will be dying of famine and starvation for want of a loaf of bread, the trade in the world’s richest luxuries will have been going strong throughout. See the verse indicating the poor in Revelation 6:5-6 and the rich in Revelation 18:9-20.

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Brazil rape statistics skyrocket
Reported rapes in Brazil rose by 157 percent between 2009 and 2012; 5,300 rapes in first six months alone
“Reported rapes in Brazil rose by 157 percent between 2009 and 2012, with Rio de Janeiro state recording 16 sexual assaults a day last year, according to official data released Sunday. In just the first six months of 2012, more than 5,300 people — 90 percent of them women — were raped in Brazil, which is home to about 194 million people.”

This is interesting to me because of the verse in Matthew 24:12 –“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”

The word “lawlessness” here in the Greek means sin which is breaking God’s law, not secular lawbreakers. But the result of sin often leads to secular lawbreaking, in the form of crimes such as rape. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 tells that the last days will be perilous in the extreme.

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40% of flights to Paris’s main airports cancelled due to heavy snow
“London’s Heathrow Airport canceled a fifth of flights on Sunday and airlines scrapped 40 percent of flights to Paris’s main airports as snow blanketed parts of Europe, with more forecast.”

Avalanche in Scottish Highlands kills 4, injures 1
Four people were killed Saturday when a group of climbers was swept away by a powerful avalanche in the Scottish Highlands, local authorities said on Sunday. A young woman remains in a critical condition with serious head injuries. Large parts of Britain have been affected by heavy snow and strong winds in recent days. Accidents on the scale of Saturday’s incident are extremely rare in the United Kingdom

Nearly 40,000 without power in southeast Michigan, crews contend with frigid temperatures
“It’s a one-two punch for tens of thousands of people without power in southeastern Michigan. Wind gusts up to 60 m.p.h. roared through the area early this morning, knocking out power to more than 100,000 homes and businesses. Now, both powerless customers and utility crews trying to restore electricity have to contend with frigid temperatures moving into the area for the next several days.”

I read a report from Scotland in 1990 that said avalanche fatalities were increasing and at that time two killed per year was the norm. Avalanche dangers have only increased from the 1990s as heavy snows increasingly fall on the Highlands as a regular course.

As for the “one-two” weather punch in Michigan, it seems that our weather has been “one-two-three-four-five…punch” of late. We are receiving storm after storm, interruption after interruption. This is expected, as Jesus said that there would be meteorological disturbances the closer to the Tribulation we get. (Luke 21:10-11). Jesus also said that during the Tribulation there will be even worse climatological events, such as drought for three years, no wind blows anywhere, sulfur from the sky, scorching heat that burns men, and more. The birth pangs we’re experiencing now seem to indicate the disruptions are increasing in frequency and painfulness in advance of the total waywardnness of the weather during the Tribulation.

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Wanted: ‘Adventurous woman’ to give birth to Neanderthal man – Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby
Yet this incredible scenario is the plan of one of the world’s leading geneticists, who is seeking a volunteer to help bring man’s long-extinct close relative back to life. Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago. His scheme is reminiscent of Jurassic Park but, while in the film dinosaurs were created in a laboratory, Professor Church’s ambitious plan requires a human volunteer. He said his analysis of Neanderthal genetic code using samples from bones is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA. He said: ‘Now I need an adventurous female human.

Since the Fall, it has been satan’s desire to reduce man from human made in God’s image, to monkey, or even a lower order biological lump, like an amoeba. It has been his desire to mingle the unholy and ungodly with the Godly and the holy so as to pollute anything God has done. The miracle of human birth via God’s knitting of him in the womb, to brutal and unthinking neanderthal ape-man, is right up his alley.

Our fight is for the integrity of Genesis 1 and the creation in seven literal 24 hour days. Satan’s war wages deep. Look how satan got to Billy Graham:

“How you believe doesn’t affect the doctrine. Either at a certain moment in evolution God breathed into one particular ape-man who was Adam, or God could have taken a handful of dust and blowed and created a man just like that” (Billy Graham, ‘United Church Observer’ ‘Sunday Magazine’ June 1966).

God blew life into an ape-man? Satanic in the extreme. Billy Graham has always been a liberal compromiser and friend to the world.

 As Ken Ham said today in his essay “The Legacy of Brainwashing”,

“Despite their claims to the contrary, atheists use evolution as their religion to replace God. Evolution is a foundation for their set of beliefs about life and how it arose, just as creation, as described in Genesis, is our set of beliefs about how life arose. Atheists blindly hold to evolution because of their rejection of Christ.”

Asking a woman to be a biological host for an alleged ape-man goes one step further toward Jesus’ prophecy that immediately prior to His coming the days would be like the Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37), when as this passage titles it, there was “Increasing Corruption on Earth”

“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:1-5)

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“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12).

Pray for His soon return, and hasten it. Do not let anyone belittle eschatology. Don’t let anyone intimidate you away from knowing the important commands of living in expectation and anticipation of His coming, even looking for it, praying in alignment with it, and speaking boldly of it.

“Let’s look at verse 12 and just see the component parts of this tremendous truth. Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, it’s as if Peter is saying you certainly shouldn’t be afraid of it, you certainly shouldn’t be worried about it, you ought to be like those of whom Paul speaks and with whom he identifies himself in 2 Timothy 4:8, when he talks about those who love Christ’s appearing. You ought to be like John who said, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” Like Paul who said, “It’s nice to be here, far better to depart and be there.” You ought to have a longing in your heart for the coming of the day of God.” (source)

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Posted in esther, for such a time as this, last days, prophecy

How does "For such a time as this" have meaning for us today?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m just in awe of the Lord these days. I sit stunned, day after day, at the prophetic news coming alive. There is no doubt that we are living in the last days, the end of time. There is no doubt that the events we are seeing are the very ones that were prophesied to occur just prior to the second return of Jesus Christ.

Therefore in addition to studying the prophesies and watching for His return as we are commanded, we also should ponder His plan and providence of His decision to station us here, now, for such a time as this.

Mordecai said to Esther, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

Now, we do not all have the terrible privilege of being the vehicle from which and through which God Himself brings deliverance to an entire people, as Esther was, but we do need to be mindful of the weight of time and the fact that God deliberately chose to put us here in this time, now. Do we take the time to thank Him? To ponder our role in these last days? To ask and seek His face as to why and what it is He wants us to do that is particular to this time, as opposed to other centuries He could have elected us to dwell in?

Gill’s Exposition of the Bible explains of the Esther verse, “and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? he intimates that he believed that the providence of God had raised her to that dignity, that she might be an instrument of saving his people in the time of their distress; and this he said to encourage her to make the experiment.”

Isn’t that phrase, “God raised her to that dignity” a wonderful and at the same time, a terrifying thing to consider? We each have a dignity to perform in His name and for His name.

Wesley’s Notes goes further:

“We should every one of us consider, for what end God has put us in the place where we are? And when an opportunity offers of serving God and our generation, we must take care not to let it slip.”

For what end, my Lord and my God? For what end do you seek to have me serve in these last days?

And my favorite, Matthew Henry’s Commentary punctuates the Esther verse with this comment:

“We are prone to shrink from services that are attended with peril or loss. But when the cause of Christ and his people demand it, we must take up our cross, and follow him. When Christians are disposed to consult their own ease or safety, rather than the public good, they should be blamed. The law was express, all knew it. It is not thus in the court of the King of kings: to the footstool of his throne of grace we may always come boldly, and may be sure of an answer of peace to the prayer of faith. We are welcome, even into the holiest, through the blood of Jesus. Providence so ordered it, that, just then, the king’s affections had cooled toward Esther; her faith and courage thereby were the more tried; and God’s goodness in the favour she now found with the king, thereby shone the brighter.”

Yes, we are prone to shrink from service that carries with it dishonor, persecution, or even death. But shrink we must not do! We are put here for a service to Him that will allow Him to shine His goodness all the brighter.

There is no doubt that we are enduring terrible pressures of the days. Sometimes it feels that our shoulders seem unequal to the task of carrying them. But then,we do not have to carry these pressures! The Lord’s yoke is easy and His burden is light, if we but cast our cares upon Him. His shoulders will carry the world’s government (Isaiah 9:6). He carried the cross on His shoulders on the way to Calvary, and He placed all the sins of the people on His shoulders while He was ON that cross. He seeks and finds one lost sheep whilst the other 99 are grazing on the hill, and when He finds the lost one, puts it on His shoulders and carries it home to much rejoicing. (Luke 15:3). He can bear all things. And through Him, we can bear the days, too.

And what days they are! Let’s take a look at some news:

MIDDLE EAST

Egypt broadens Sinai campaign to root out terror
“Egypt’s military said on Wednesday it would broaden its offensive against militants in the Sinai Peninsula, a campaign that has raised concerns in Israel about the movement of heavy armor into the area near its border. Disorder has spread in Sinai since President Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow last year. Analysts say Islamists with possible links to al-Qaeda have gained a foothold. This has alarmed Israel.”

Israelis to ‘lose’ 300 meters to Sinai security
The IDF is set to issue orders that would convert an area of 300 meters within the Sinai border into a closed military zone
“Israelis will soon be banned from approaching too close to the Sinai border. A report on Army Radio Thursday morning said that the IDF was set to issue orders that would convert an area of 300 meters within the Sinai border into a closed military zone, which only soldiers and security personnel would be able to enter. The order would apply even to areas where the Sinai border fence is in place. The fence, much of which contains electronic sensors to detect intruders, is about three quarters complete.”

Iran doubled capacity of bunker enrichment plant, ‘significantly’ hampers inspection, IAEA charges
“Iran has effectively shut down a probe of a site suspected of being used for work on nuclear weapons development while doubling the number of machines it could use to make the core of nuclear warheads at an underground bunker safe from airborne attack, the UN nuclear agency said in a report Thursday.”

An IAEA report said the Fordo [nuclear] plant has around 2,000 centrifuges installed, compared with around 1,000 in May. This is terrible news. Joel Rosenberg has an essay tonight titled,

“Inside the debate: Should Israel Strike Iran in the next 10 Weeks? What Netanyahu, Barak and their critics are thinking“

Iran has repeatedly said they plan to wipe Israel off the earth. Iran’s top officials and its theocratic clerics believe with all their heart that doing so is an Allah-given right, duty, and responsibility to show Allah their seriousness in preparing the way for the final Imam to arrive.

Israel has repeatedly said “Never again,” this is their national motto. Yesterday Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran a “disgrace” to humanity, during a meeting Wednesday evening with the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Germany, David McAllister. “Seventy years ago, six million of our people were destroyed in an act of genocide. The world pledged ‘never again’ . . . It appears that many among the international community haven’t learned anything.” Netanyahu said that the Iranian “regime denies the Holocaust and is working to destroy the Jewish state. This regime oppresses its people, takes part in the butchering of innocent Syrians, and calls for death toAmerica, death to Israel.”

So sadly, “Never Again” will prove to be a hollow motto. Jesus said regarding the abomination of desolation, and as for the Jews in Jerusalem, “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22).

Prophecy students know that ‘Never Again’ will soon change to “Not again!!”

PESTILENCE

Great rampaging diseases are prophesied to occur in the Tribulation. Disease will be one of the methods Jesus uses to judge the world and bring widespread death. (Luke 21:11; Revelation 6:8).

Right now, did you know that one of the worst outbreaks of West Nile virus to ever hit the United States is happening, and is continuing to expand?

4 dead so far as West Nile disease becomes epidemic in Michigan
“West Nile disease — a mosquito-borne illness — has reached epidemic proportions in Michigan, particularly in older suburbs that ring metro Detroit and Grand Rapids, state health officials warned Wednesday. Michigan’s 80 cases this summer, including four deaths, rank the state as the sixth highest in the nation with the problem, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

West Nile Virus Cases Hit 1,590; Death Toll at 66
“Reports of West Nile virus infection in the country now total 1,590, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday – an increase of more than 40 percent in one week alone. CDC officials also reported during a Wednesday afternoon teleconference that 66 people have died from the disease so far. Of all of the cases reported thus far, 889 – or 56 percent – are classified as neuroinvasive, meaning patients develop meningitis, encephalitis or paralysis. These figures represent a striking increase from last week’s report of 1,118 cases”

2,900 Yosemite visitors warned about possible exposure to deadly hantavirus
“About 2,900 Yosemite National Park visitors from around the world who stayed in Curry Village this summer have been notified about possible exposure to hantavirus, a mouse-borne illness that can develop into severe and often-fatal respiratory disease. People who stayed in the cabins from June 10 through Aug. 24 have been notified by e-mail or letter about possible infection, Yosemite National Park spokeswoman Kari Cobb told CBSNews.com. In addition, visitors who were planning on staying in the tent cabins in Curry Village at Yosemite have been re-booked in other locations, while the 91 cabins undergo sanitation and retrofitting.”

John MacArthur believes that the prophecy will be fulfilled via rodents. He preached on “The Grim Reality of the Last Days,” saying “Luke 21 also adds there will be plagues, terrors and great signs from heaven. You want plagues, how about the black death, 1300’s in Europe, carried by rats, killed 60 percent of the population of Europe in excess of a hundred million people. How about 40 million plus in the great influenza, the early twentieth century. Great signs from heaven, terrors, fires, diseases, heat, cold, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought.”

Well, we have all that now, including diseases, and in the Tribulation diseases will run away from being managed through medicine and bring death along for the ride.
————-

DROUGHT

Isaac rain may bring some drought relief

Praise the Lord, I hope it does!!!

“As Hurricane Isaac continues to pound the Gulf Coast with rain and wind, meteorologists say the storm could provide some much-needed hydration in parts of the country hit hard by drought. Isaac will bring “soaking downpours” to parts of Arkansas, Missouri and other Central states into the weekend, according to AccuWeather. The rain will arrive too late for summer crops, such as corn and soybeans, which were damaged by the hottest July on record. But the moisture could reach far enough westward to benefit some of the upcoming winter wheat crop, according to Dale Mohler, a meteorologist at AccuWeather.”

————————
CULTURE

Girl, 10, charged with manslaughter in Maine

What a horrible thing!! Society has surely degeneration’s too far when children are [allegedly] killing babies!

“PORTLAND, MAINE (AP) –— A 10-year-old girl was charged Thursday with manslaughter in the death of an infant whose mother said had ingested medication and been suffocated.  The girl, who is not being identified, is the youngest person to be charged with manslaughter in Maine in at least 25 years. The infant, Brooklyn Foss-Greenaway, of Clinton in central Maine, had been left overnight with an adult baby sitter in nearby Fairfield.”

 ———————–

Back to Esther. When Mordecai tells Esther she may have been put here for such a time as this, what Mordecai is really doing is affirming Divine sovereignty. “He affirms divine sovereignty. He affirms his confidence in the revelation of God that he would preserve his people. But he also understands that Esther can perish and he can perish and many other Jews can perish if she doesn’t act. … The invisible hand of God is evident everywhere” in the Book of Esther and His invisible hand is everywhere in the world today. No one, no matter how they attempt to destroy the people of God and the purpose of God, can succeed because God’s covenant love for Israel will be fulfilled, is being fulfilled. And the message for you is this. While you’re going through life and trying to make sure you fix all the little pieces of your life, understand this: that there is over and in, above and below your life a divine architect ordering every detail. And if you belong to Him and are in the covenant of His love, He is accomplishing His perfect will. And you can rest in that, you can rest in that.”

“The Lord is still on the throne. These are challenging times, challenging days to live in. You can become pretty distressed about the way things are going, the way things are going in the world is chaotic, disconcerting, troubling, disturbing, distressing, some ways frightening. Not so in the kingdom. The divine architect is ordering our lives, those of us who belong to Him and are in covenant love with Him. He is ordering our lives to His eternal glory, every part. How wonderful to live in that confidence” (source)

Posted in cultural decline, last days

The predicted cultural decline is rapidly upon us

Posted on by elizabethprata

Paul warned Timothy that in the last days it would be perilous times. (2 Tim 3:1-5). That warning was aimed at first century Christians’s edification, about first century Christians, and it is even more so for us now. The cultural decline within the Christian community is rapidly increasing, and as one might expect, the cultural decline among the non-Christians is increasing even more. Take this statistic. It is astounding:

“Cohabitation in the United States has increased by more than 1,500 percent in the past half century. In 1960, about 450,000 unmarried couples lived together. Now the number is more than 7.5 million.” (Source)

That’s my lifetime. I was born in 1960. I grew up in a culture where the standard for cohabitation as man and wife, legally married in a covenant marriage observed by God, has been thrown away and any manner of dyads and triads of any or all genders for any period of time that is convenient for all parties is looked upon as the societal norm. This will have consequences.

The last days are typically understood to be from when Christ ascended to when He returns. The last 7 years of that end time is the Tribulation. That is when Jesus punishes Israel and judges the world.

In advance of the Tribulation the rapture will occur. I know that many say that we don’t or can’t know that for sure, but that is not true. The bible is clear on the timing, and any doctrine contrary to the pre-tribulation rapture in my opinion is a satanic device to steal confidence and assurance in God’s promises to His Bride. However it is true that the rapture will be a signless event.

That is for two reasons. First, it always has been an imminent event. Nothing “has to happen” before He calls His Bride up to Himself. Secondly, the rapture is an event that is not tied to a date, but a number. Paul said in Romans 11:25 that “do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” (NIV) Other translations say ‘fulness of the Gentiles’. In the Greek, fulness means a filling up, a full complement, complete, to consummate, as in a number.

God has a number in mind for His church, and when that number is reached, it is full. We will be called up to Him, the dead in Christ will rise and those who are alive and remain will be caught up with them to be with Jesus forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Note that Paul said that the Israelites’ hearts had been partially hardened. That hardening will be released at the rapture (Acts 15:14-16) and during the Tribulation many Jews will be saved. He always preserves a remnant!

Though we do not know days nor hour, we can suspect the season. If you read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 you will see that those who are not in darkness can understand the season drawing to a close, and in Matthew 24 we are told that when the fig tree buds, we will know the time is near.

However, even though the rapture is a signless, always, imminent event, the Tribulation is not. As we see what the Lord has forecast for the people left on earth during that terrible time, we see the prophetic pieces coming together and even now the pieces are almost touching. If we can see signs that the Tribulation is nearing, how much closer would the rapture be? Close. So that is the rationale for believing His coming for His bride is near. Looking to His coming is something we are rewarded with doing, as well. (2 Timothy 4:8, 1 Corinthians 9:25).

At the time of the Tribulation, He will lift the Holy Spirit from the earth as well as He did prior to the Flood (Gen 6:3). He will not disappear completely, of course, because the Spirit draws men to God (John 12:32). But the ministry of His hand holding back lawlessness (sinful rebellion against God) through Christians on earth will cease. Sin will be allowed to run rampant. Sin will have dominion.

Prior to that terrible time, perhaps even now we can see the effect of a rising rebelliousness and sin’s hold on a Godless society having its tipping point. We know that in the time of the end the churches will have less and less power, become weaker and weaker, and by definition, sin will increase.

Revelation 2-3 shows us letters to actual churches in the first generation of Christians but also the letters are included in Holy Writ so that we may be instructed today. We see that Ephesus is a church that had forsaken its first love; Pergamum is a church that needs to repent Thyatira is a church that has a false prophetess, Sardis is a church that had fallen asleep, Laodicea is a church with the lukewarm faith. Only the letters to the churches at Smyrna and Philadelphia did not contain a rebuke. So we see that 5 of the 7 churches had grown weak and ineffective in one or more ways, and so shall it be as the Church Age progresses. Far from there being a prophetic indication of a great revival prior to the Tribulation, the church will become weaker and more ineffective.

As the church grows weaker, sin becomes stronger, stranger, more rampant and obvious. Here is one small example. With that in mind, here are some crime stories this week, people are not only acting in increasingly weird ways, but really are off their rockers. That is what sin will do to a person. Sin makes you crazy.

Lawrence Deptola Of Utica Attempts To Rob Three Banks With A Toilet Plunger
“Lawrence Deptola is flush out of luck.Deptola, 49, of Utica, New York, allegedly tried to rob three banks — unsuccessfully — using a toilet plunger, WKTV News reports.At about 1:30 on Thursday afternoon, Utica Police responded to a report of an armed robbery at a Key Bank location. Deptola, plunger in hand, entered the branch and started screaming obscenities, demanding that bank employees put money in a bag. He threatened tellers with the suction-stick, police said. Cops arrived on the scene after receiving calls from two other banks, which Deptola also allegedly demanded money from.”

Woman strips naked at DIA
“A female passenger at Denver International Airport caused a stir Tuesday morning when she stripped naked in the middle of Concourse B, airport officials said. The incident happened at about 8:45 a.m. when, according to DIA spokeswoman Jenny Schiavone, the woman was caught smoking a cigarette at gate B81, in a non-smoking area. At some point after airport workers told her to extinguish the cigarette, the woman took off her clothes. It wasn’t immediately clear why. However, Denver Police say it was unrelated to the smoking issue. Authorities eventually transported the woman to a hospital, Schiavone said. She was not arrested and does not face charges.”

Exorcist wanted in Saskatoon
“A case of what is being called possible demonic possession in Saskatoon has prompted local church officials to consider the need for an exorcist.CBC News spoke with a Catholic priest involved in the case, which arose in March, and agreed not to identify participants in order to protect their privacy. According to church officials, a priest was called to a Saskatoon home by a woman who said her uncle showed signs of being possessed by the devil. The woman believed a priest’s blessing could help the distraught man. At the home, the priest encountered a shirtless middle-aged man, slouched on a couch and holding his head in his hands. The man had used a sharp instrument to carve the word Hell on his chest. When the priest entered the room, the man spoke in the third person, saying “He belongs to me. Get out of here,” using a strange voice. The priest told CBC News that he had never seen anything like this and was concerned enough to call police, for safety reasons. He said he then blessed the man, saying he belonged to the good side, to Jesus. With that, the man’s voice returned to normal for a short time. The unusual voice returned when police arrived, and the priest continued to bless the man until he resumed a more normal composure.”

Secret Service agents busted because they refused to pay hooker: source
“The dozen Secret Service agents sent home after a prostitution scandal in Colombia were busted after at least one of them refused to pay a hooker, sources said. The scandal — a black eye for the United States’ reputation abroad — was revealed Friday before President Obama arrived in Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas.The 12 agents were part of an advance team meant to secure a local hotel before the summit began — yet their attention apparently turned to taking advantage of Colombia’s policy of legal prostitution.“They had arranged to have a bunch of prostitutes come by and one of the agents refused to pay a prostitute,” said author Ronald Kessler, one of the leading experts on the Secret Service. “Yes, doubly good judgement there.” Kessler, who was briefed on the investigation by his sources within the agency, told the Daily News Saturday that the spurned hooker went to the police to report the lack of payment. The local authorities then notified the U.S. officials, who immediately recalled the 12 agents back to Washington. “Their careers are over,” said Kessler. “Number one, it is against basic ethics to go to a prostitute,” he continued. “Number two, it is incredibly embarrassing to the White House.”“And number three,” he continued. “It could leave them open to blackmail and a possible assassination attempt.” “

Crazy, huh?!

Posted in iran, last days, persia

Iran rising

Posted on by elizabethprata

Persia figures prominently in the last days. This segment below is from Joel C Rosenberg’s Q&A about the Gog Magog war (Ezekiel 38-39), in which Iran, Russia and Turkey with others attack Israel, and no one comes to her defense…except God Himself.

Will the War of Gog and Magog happen before or after the Rapture?
“The truth is we simply do not know the answer for certain, because Ezekiel does not say. Many of the theologians I have cited in this book believe the war will occur after the Rapture. In the novel Left Behind, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins describe the War of Gog and Magog as having already happened before the Rapture takes place. In The Ezekiel Option, I also chose to portray the war occurring before the Rapture.”

“In Matthew 24:14, Jesus says, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (NASB). We also know from Ezekiel that God will use the War of Gog and Magog to display his glory to all nations and to pour out his Holy Spirit, particularly on the nation of Israel. As a result of the entire world seeing God defend Israel from the onslaught of the Russian-Iranian coalition, a dramatic spiritual awakening will occur around the globe. It would certainly be consistent with God’s heart for humanity that he would cause this cataclysmic moment to occur before the Rapture in order to shake people out of their spiritual apathy and/or rebellion and give them at least one more chance to receive Christ as their Savior before the terrible events of the Tribulation occur.”

“But let me be clear: I believe that the Rapture could occur at any moment, and I would certainly not be surprised in any way if it occurred before the events of Ezekiel 38 and 39 come to pass. Christian theologians speak of the “doctrine of imminence.” This means that according to the Bible there is no prophetic event that has to happen before Jesus snatches his church from the earth. That is, the Bible teaches us that we should be ready for Jesus to come for us at any moment. I fully believe that. But it should be noted with regard to this doctrine that while no major prophetic event has to happen before the Rapture, that doesn’t mean no such event will happen first. Perhaps the clearest evidence of this truth is the rebirth of Israel. This major prophetic event was foretold in Ezekiel 36–37, yet its fulfillment happened before the Rapture. Thus, it is certainly possible that other events—such as the events of Ezekiel 38–39—could happen before the Rapture as well.”

Persia (Iran) has always been opposed to God’s people. The angel that came to Daniel was hindered by the prince of Persia (Daniel 10:4-21). Places in the world have fallen angels behind the leadership to spread evil amongst the people and to rule in oppression and fear, and in the invisible realms they hinder God’s angels and try to oppose God’s work. Iran has always been a place in the real earth and in the celestial realms that has been a stronghold of opposition against God’s people.

Report: Iran planned to bomb Israeli ship in Suez Canal
“Iran had planned to bomb an Israeli ship while it crossed the Suez Canal, the prosecution in Egypt’s state security court said, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.According to the report, two Egyptians were recently arrested and investigated for allegedly planning an attack on an Israeli ship in the Suez Canal.”

Iranian weapons half Syria’s Assad put down unrest
“Iran is providing a broad array of assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad to help him suppress anti-government protests, from high-tech surveillance technology to guns and ammunition, U.S. and European security officials say.Tehran’s technical assistance to Assad’s security forces includes electronic surveillance systems, technology designed to disrupt efforts by protesters to communicate via social media, and Iranian-made drone aircraft for overhead surveillance, the officials said. They discussed intelligence matters on condition of anonymity. “Over the past year, Iran has provided security assistance to Damascus to help shore up Assad. Tehran during the last couple of months has been aiding the Syrian regime with lethal assistance – including rifles, ammunition, and other military equipment — to help it put down the opposition,” a U.S. official said.”

Despite Iran’s continual prayers that Islam prevail, despite the fact that Iran as repeatedly said that they want to wipe Israel from the map, despite the fact that Iran is inches away from obtaining a nuclear bomb and has said they have no hesitation to use it, despite myriad foiled plots against Israel AND the United States, some 1000 Israelis marched against the thought of striking Iran’s nuclear bomb-making facilities–

Hundreds of Israelis march in Tel Aviv to protest war with Iran
“Hundreds of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest against a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The protest came amid a recent Facebook campaign linking Israeli and Iranian citizens in their opposition to war between the two nations. Campaign leaders, however, made it clear on their Facebook page that they had nothing to do with the Tel Aviv protest march.”

Iran is in the news just about as much as Israel. Just as the bible said the world would be focused on these matters in the last days, we are.

Posted in doomsday preppers, last days, prophecy

I am a prepper! Are you prepping for doomsday?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Are you a prepper? It means someone who is prepared for a certain eventuality they believe might occur in their life at some point in the near term or the far future. Being prepped used to mean to be prepared for an operation, lol, but it also used to mean prepared for retirement with a good sized savings account and retirement plan. Preparing for retirement was what my generation did, penny by penny, dollar by dollar, over the course of a life.

Then it came to mean insurance. “Do you have insurance?” The boutique kinds of insurance were created and the people buying them felt prepared. Pet illness insurance, flood insurance where floods had not occurred before, hurricane insurance, term life insurance because we are living longer, long term care insurance to tide us over in the nursing home until the end. Life was getting more complicated so we had to be prepared for more things.

Now prepper means prepared for Armageddon. The secular world does not mean literal Armageddon. They do not think that is going to happen, of course. The prophesied battle of the last days where the world’s armies assemble for one last cataclysmic battle against the Holy Savior is what Armageddon really means. (Rev 16:16, Revelation 19:19-21).

What the world means when they say they are prepping for Armageddon is they are getting themselves ready to live through any number of earth-shattering, wide-scale cataclysmic events. We certainly have seen enough of them in the last few years. There was the Christmas Tsunami at Indonesia in 2004, and the March 2011 quake and tsunami at Japan. The series of quakes that occurred at Haiti and Chile and New Zealand at the beginning of last year. Tornadoes wiping out whole towns, one after another. Volcanoes exploding, spewing ash to halt half the world’s air travel. Floods covering a quarter of Australia. The world has seen death and destruction on a wide scale. We have seen that it can and it does happen. Now they are getting ready. Preppers have constructed a safety net for any and all contingencies.

Even Chevy got into the apocalypse game and presented (a winning) ad during the Superbowl. In this still clip, a man in a Chevy survived meteors, UFO invasion, earthquakes, volcanoes, a plague of frogs, fires, and civilizations’ collapse.

 

Here is the ad:

I like to read futuristic fiction. Last summer I read the classic Alas, Babylon, a 1950s era novel depicting the effects of a nuclear attack on the US. Despite being over fifty years old it consistently ranks in Amazon.com’s Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list. The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based upon the actual city of Mount Dora, Florida. Despite being a bit scientifically inaccurate it does a good job of showing the collapse of society and the reformation attempts in the nuclear aftermath.

I also read One Second After, a 2009 novel by American writer William R. Forstchen. The novel deals with an unexpected electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States as it affects the people living in and around the town of Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was extremely realistic. The end of the book talked about the likelihood of a given population’s survival after an EMP with all the attendant collapses. The Wiki on this book states, “Refugees from the cities show up looking for food and shelter and the fight over scarce resources leads to confrontation, home invasion, and more violence-related die-offs. The community becomes an inviting target for free prisoners and organized gangs and more violence-related die-off. Ration cards are issued to conserve the little remaining food; regardless, the community slowly starves with the elderly the first to die off. Next parents starve themselves to save their children. Throughout this period suicides are common. After a year, approximately 20% of the initial population has “survived”. It was stated in the epilogue section from actual sociologists and scientists that such a die-off rate (80%) in the aftermath of an EMP is very likely. I recommend the book.

A few months ago I watched a very compelling, recent documentary called “After Armageddon” on the History Channel. It is a theoretical account of a worst case scenario for global disaster, this time, a pandemic thanks to a superflu. The live scenes of how this affects a family in Los Angeles were interspersed with interviews with real scientists discussing what to do and how to act at the various points of the flu’s run. The docu-drama shows in graphic detail just how fast normal society can break down. I thought it was very realistic. The video can be seen here, part 1/9.

There is a new television show now on the National Geographic channel, called “Doomsday Preppers.”  The tagline goes like this: “Doomsday Preppers explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. Unique in their beliefs, motivations, and strategies, preppers will go to whatever lengths they can to make sure they are prepared for any of life’s uncertainties. And with our expert’s assessment, they will find out their chances of survival if their worst fears become a reality.”

An article about it opens, “A lot of people are terrified that, unlike Harold Camping, the ancient Mayans got it right and that the apocalypse (zombie or otherwise) will unfold in 2012. … Hence, the arrival of new show “Doomsday Preppers” (Tues., 9 p.m. EST on Nat Geo). Ordinary Americans who are readying themselves for disaster get to have their apocalypse survival plans evaluated by survival experts. On the series premiere, Kellene Bishop taught self-defense techniques to a group of women so that they could overcome their worst-case scenario, whether it be doomsday or attempted rape.”

The end of the world is equated to attempted rape. Uh, okayyyy.

The end of the world is touted as survivable. Uh…okayyyyy.

In another article about the new show they write, “The channel commissioned an online survey of 1,007 adults in the USA, and found that 61% of Americans believe the country will experience a major catastrophic event within the next 20 years, but only 15% feel they are fully prepared for it.”

I can guarantee that less than 15% are actually prepared for it. The article continues,

“In the series premiere, viewers meet a retired couple who have 50,000 pounds of food stored in their doomsday-proof home built of steel shipping containers, an an urban survivalist in Los Angeles prepping for a severe earthquake.”

Here is what is coming: “Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. … Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.” (Revelation 16:18-20)

No amount of “prepping” will survive that.

Here is what will happen to that doomsday-proofed home: “Ezekiel 38:20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground.”

Every. Wall. Will. Fall.

It is part of man’s hubris to think he can outsmart, out-wait, out buy, and make an end run around what every heart knows is coming: their judgment. The air is ripe with expectancy. Chevy commercials, movies, books, television are focused on last days. They like to use the Mayan 2012 doomsday date as an excuse, but it is really because they know something is coming.

The 2012 Mayan doomers certainly are not helping this focus on doomsday, apocalypse, Armageddon, whatever they are calling it now. The Harold Camping ‘rapture May 21, 2011’ got them going. The endless stream of catastrophes have gotten everyone thinking about how best to prepare for the next one. But they are thinking along the wrong lines. I am prepped for doomsday. I am ready! Getting prepped doesn’t take a container house full of food. Nor does it take a grab bag and a bug out plan. It doesn’t take stockpiles or guns or puffed-up prep jargon and a Berky water filter in my Jeep.

It takes a second to prepare for doomsday. It takes a second to get prepped for eternity. One second. And one second after, you will enter a light and a joy that will last forever. All it takes is repentance.

If you repent of your sins and plead with Jesus to accept your apology (and turn away from the bad ways you act,- and we all act bad against Jesus, no one is sinless except Him), He will forgive you! You will be set forever. He will cherish you, provide for you, teach you, wipe the very tears from your eyes. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Repent literally means change. It means to change your mind that you are a good person and can stand before Holy God on your own merits. It is a change from old ways hateful to God to new ways pleasing to God with the aid of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It means change your heart from thinking you don’t need a Savior to a heart that cries in shame for its lack of humility toward Him and an acknowledgement of our need for Him.

The final 7 years is a judgment time upon the earth. It culminates at Armageddon with assembled armies literally thinking they can defeat Jesus (Rev 16:16). They don’t. But in between the opening salvo at the Tribulation’s start and the final Word at Armageddon (Rev 19:21), preppers who see their carefully constructed homes collapse in a moment (Isaiah 24:1,3) will sincerely wish they had done their one second of prepping: repent, and be saved. Christian preppers were ready for His return. They repented and were in Him, were in His gracious gift of salvation, sanctification, regeneration, and justification. They will be taken in the rapture to a glorious marriage supper (Revelation 19:7-10), and installed in their place He has been preparing (John 14:2), and given crowns and awards (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, Rev. 22:12). You have the option to choose which kind of prepping you want to do. You can go here to learn about what salvation is and what you are being saved from, or you can go here to watch NatGeo’s part 1 of Doomsday Preppers.

You can rely on your Chevy which man created, or you can rely on God, who created the world.

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Posted in end time, last days, wars and rumors of wars

Wars and Rumors of Wars

Posted on by elizabethprata

In Matthew 24, Jesus answers the disciples’ question about the signs of the end of the age and the signs of Jesus coming, and asked when will all these things happen. Three questions, from verse 1-3 and from verse 4-8 Jesus began His answer.

“And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”

Then in verse 9 He deepened the answer and referred to tribulation and perilous times by specifically mentioning certain events. He then speaks of the Abomination of Desolation. Some scholars use the break at verse 8 to interpret that Jesus meant that the birth pangs would encompass the entire time between Jesus’ ascension and second coming, and verse 9 onward being the Tribulation, and others interpret those first 4 verses as included in only the Tribulation period of 7 years along with the rest of the Discourse. I take the former view.

Here: “The Bible predicts a downward spiral of catastrophes, human sin, and religious apostasy before Christ returns. Paul writes, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. . . . evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:1, 13). The world will continue to reject God, His Word, and His people. … The erosion of peace and increase of turmoil that precedes the Rapture will reach epic proportions when untold numbers of people disappear from earth.”

I believe the world has been in pangs since Jesus ascended, though like contractions are wont to do, start off mild and unnoticeable, increasing terribly as the birth nears. Then the water breaks, and I believe the rapture is that event we can liken to water breaking. When the water breaks, things really get serious in the labor pains and birthing process. The birth is near once the water breaks. What is being birthed? The Kingdom of Jesus Christ that will last 1000 years. (Revelation 20:2-7; Luke 1:32-33′ Ezekiel 43:7).

Jesus said one thing to look out for is wars and rumors of wars. It was the second thing He said to look for, after false Christs. War rhetoric has always been with us on earth, we are a warlike and rebellious people. The Middle East since Israel’s re-birth has especially been rife with wars and rumors of wars. But never to the degree that the epicenter has seen today. Seven or more nations are on war alert, live drills with live missiles are taking place. Rockets are being moved. War Ministers are readying troops. Ambassadors are being recalled. Warships are moving into place. The following headlines are from the past two days. They are extraordinary. In my opinion, they exemplify “wars and rumors of wars” to a high degree.

I believe that final, final pieces are being readied for the last days prophesies to be fulfilled quickly. If that is the case, then the rapture is even sooner.

‘Iranian forces go on war alert‘
Iran moving missiles to secret sites, Western officials tell British paper; earlier, Tehran residents reported to stockpile goods, fearing imminent strike
“Growing panic in Iran? The commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards has ordered his forces to raise their operational readiness ahead of a possible war or strike on the country’s nuclear facilities, the Telegraph reported late Monday.”

“The British newspaper quoted Western intelligence sources as saying that Iran is repositioning ballistic missiles, explosives and troops into defensive positions, in order to offer a quick response in the case of an attack by Israel or the United States.”

Iran’s downing of US drone rattles Washington
“U.S. military officials have expressed concern over news reports that Iran recently downed a U.S. spy drone that had violated the country’s airspace.On Sunday, an unidentified Iranian military source said that the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic had downed a U.S. drone along the country’s eastern border, the Fars News Agency reported.“An advanced RQ-170 unmanned American spy plane was shot down by Iran’s armed forces. It suffered minor damage and is now in possession of Iran’s armed forces,” the source said, according to Fox News.The official also stated that Iran would give a crushing response to any violation of its airspace, saying the response “will not be limited to the country’s borders.”

US officials say Pakistan leaving liaison centers
“Pakistan is pulling its troops out of at least two of the three centers meant to coordinate military activity across the Afghan border in apparent retaliation for NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, U.S. military officials said.”

Pakistan recalls ambassadors for consultations after NATO attack
“Pakistan recalls ambassadors for consultations after NATO attack Islamabad has recalled a number of its ambassadors for urgent consultations in the wake of NATO’s killing of 25 Pakistani soldiers, the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. The envoys will be instructed on new foreign policy which has been reviewed in the light of last month’s attack, Itar-Tass reports. Ambassadors in the US, the EU countries, Russia, India, Afghanistan and other states were called back, the ministry said, adding that they will be familiarized with the new foreign policy doctrine. Earlier, Islamabad warned it would review its ties with the US and its allies.”

Rare attacks on Afghan Shiites kill 60, suicide bomber strikes Kabul mosque
“A suicide bomber struck a crowd of Shiite worshippers who packed a Kabul mosque Tuesday to mark a holy day, killing at least 56 people, and a second bombing in another city killed four more Shiites. They were the first major sectarian assaults since the fall of the Taliban a decade ago. … Religiously motivated attacks on Shiites are rare in Afghanistan although they are common in neighboring Pakistan.”

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prime Minister: If Iran attacks Israel it will be gone the next day”
“United Arab Emirates’ PM downplays concerns about nuclear Iran, tells CNN he believes Israel will destroy Iran if attacked. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) discounted on Tuesday the West’s concerns about a nuclear-armed Iran.

Sectarian bloodshed worsens in Syria amid uprising
“Dozens of bodies were dumped in the streets of a Syrian city at the heart of the country’s nearly 9-month-old uprising, a grim sign that sectarian bloodshed is escalating as the country descends further toward civil war.”

China’s Hu urges navy to prepare for combat
“Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday urged the navy to prepare for military combat, amid growing regional tensions over maritime disputes and a US campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power.”

As Matthew Henry said in his commentary on the Matthew 24:6 verse, “Our Saviour cautions his disciples to stand on their guard against false teachers. And he foretells wars and great commotions among nations. From the time that the Jews rejected Christ, and he left their house desolate, the sword never departed from them. See what comes of refusing the gospel. Those who will not hear the messengers of peace, shall be made to hear the messengers of war. “

Make sure your heart is at peace with the Savior.
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