As the time draws nigh, people less and less look to prophecy as a legitimate study of the bible. They dismiss the prophetic, are skeptical of it, or simply ignore it. The silence of the pulpits is resounding, and the ignorance of the people is disheartening.
I’d like to spend a bit of time in encouraging us all to study the word, and not to ignore the prophetic. Lambert Dolphin wrote,
“A major portion of both the Old and New Testament is devoted to prophecy- nearly one third of the Scripture. Only four of the 66 books of the Bible are without prophecy-Ruth, the Song of Solomon, Philemon, and 3 John. Even the shortest book of the Bible mentions prophecy (Jude 14, 17-18, which refers to Enoch and the second coming of the Lord). Out of the Old Testament’s 23,210 verses, 6,641 contain predictive material, over twenty eight percent. Out of the New Testament’s 7,914 verses, 1,711 contain predictive material, over 21 percent.”
“Unfortunately, many pastors, priests and ministry leaders here in the U.S. and around the world are not teaching Bible prophecy — as I see it, there are four major reasons for this.”
–First, many pastors don’t teach prophecy because they have a lack of belief in the power of God’s Word. –Second, many pastors don’t teach prophecy because they have a lack of knowledge of — and sound training in — Bible prophecy. –Third, many pastors don’t teach prophecy because they have a fear of being lumped in with “prophecy nuts” and those who peddle sensationalism. –Fourth, many pastors don’t teach prophecy because they have a lack of understanding of the times in which we live and the increasingly close return of Christ.
Illustration above, “God judging Adam” Genesis 3, William Blake, C. 1795
Rosenberg fleshes out each of the points, and promises that a second part to the essay will be posted soon.
Prophecy is the very Word of God, spoken by His mouth to His servants. (Revelation 1:1, Luke 1:70). Before the Word was written, He spoke it. The first prophecy was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden as He related to them the curse of the Fall from Grace, but promised a Messiah. (Genesis 3:15).
Then the Prophets came, as they had since the beginning, (Luke 1:70), and God told them to write down the words. (Habakkuk 2:2, Exodus 17:14, Jeremiah 30:1 & 2 for example).
Poor Jeremiah. God spoke to Him and Jeremiah spoke to the people. Then God told Jeremiah to write the words down. Jeremiah did. However, Jeremiah’s words from God were so ill-received that King Jehoiakim burned the scroll of everything that had been written. The King burned it bit by bit as Baruch read it. The LORD then told Jeremiah to write it all over again, a monumental work, and this time God added words that cursed the king. (Jeremiah 30). God’s word will not be denied.
So prophecy was and is the word of the Lord, whether spoken as it was in the Old Testament or written as it was then and it is now. It will be spoken again, in the Tribulation, when God sends His Two Witnesses to prophesy for 1,260 days. (Revelation 11:3). Illustration, James Shaw Crompton, of Habakkuk 2:2, “I will stand upon my watch”
Prophecy is extremely important, we are told many times. 1 Thessalonians 5:20 warns us not to despise prophesyings. For example, in 2 Peter 1:19 we are told it is “a sure word.” This is because almost nothing else illustrates His sovereignty more than prophecy. How so?
“And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” (Numbers 11:23). He delivers His word and tells us to test it, watch for it. This is because His Word is sure and God knows it will come true.
Pastor Jim McClarty discussed the Irresistibility of God in his 2009 sermon delivered at the Sovereign Grace Bible Conference. He made several wonderful points during his exciting 1 hour sermon, but his second point is the one I’d like to bring to you now. He said,
“God’s irrestibility is demonstrated in prophecy. Prophecy is a risky venture. There are no other major religious pieces of literature in the world that contain the amount of prophecy that the bible does. It’s one of the most unique characteristics of the bible, and it is chock full of prophecy. The reason it’s risky is, you can check it.” (Numbers 11:23, Deuteronomy 18:22).
People often think that the Old Testament times were heavily prophetic all the time. They believe that miracles happened every day and that God talked to the prophets every minute. It is not so. The miracles we read about in the Old Testament were spaced far apart, years, decades, centuries, even. After Micah, there were no prophets for 400 years, until John the Baptist came, and John performed no miracles as Elijah or Moses did. For most of the generations in the OT, they read the scrolls, listened to the priests, and lived lives in submission to Holy God and were waiting for their Messiah to come.
Illustration, Jeremiah, “The Lord’s word came to me again” Annie Vallotton.
In our day, we read the pages of the bible, listen to the pastors, and live lives in submission to the Messiah who has come- and will soon come again!
I love prophecy. The LORD put me here during one of the most heavily prophetic times in the history of the world, to be part of the generation that will be raptured. I see it unrolling before my eyes. Now, people can get carried away. Mr Rosenberg was right that there are nuts who run away with prophecy predictions and claim to hear a word from the Lord as Jeremiah or Elijah did. Fortunately, as Jim McClarty said, we can check the prophecies in the bible. We can rejoice that our Holy God not only is the creator of the universe and the author and architect and finisher of our faith, but His word is sure. He is sovereign and that means, according to Rev. Matt Slick at CARM,
“Sovereignty in relation to God means that God has the absolute right to do with His creation as He desires. Some verses that support this are as follows: Psalm 115:3, “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” Isaiah 46:10, “Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure;”
Faith in God is always trustworthy, even when answers to life’s issues and traumas do not always arrive. We must trust God in spite of what we see. But when we do see, as in prophecy coming true as written in the pages of His word, we rejoice that He is in control and our faith will prosper us.
“And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
Why don’t today’s pastors teach or preach bible prophecy? Joel C. Rosenberg looks at 4 reasons. (The bible says that in the latter days, men will not want to hear solid bible preaching or God’s word in any form. 2 Timothy 4:4; Isaiah 30:10 are two examples.)
Lake in France turns blood red, excessive salt said to be the cause. This Daily Mail article has lots of photos. The red lake sure does look eerie. (Rev 16:4 shows us that in the Tribulation all the world’s rivers, lakes and streams will turn blood red, either because of “natural causes” like excessive salt, or literally with blood, or simply as a miracle of God.)
Stennis departing for deployment as seen from Fort Casey. Photo courtesy of Barbara Johnson. Stennis FB page
USS Stennis has shore leave cut short, is sent back to the Persian Gulf four months early, due to rising tensions. Stennis is taking the Mobile Bay and Carrier Air Wing 9. (Jesus said in Matthew 24:6 that wars and rumors of wars will characterize the last days. Even so, the end is not yet.)
The Times of Israel reports that the long-planned and once delayed massive military drill with Israel, due to start this October, has been vastly reduced by the US. Time Magazine first reported this, and quotes an Israeli military official, “Basically what the Americans are saying is, “We don’t trust you,” a senior Israeli military official is quoted by Time as saying.” (In the last days, Jerusalem would be a burden to the entire world. Zech 12:2-3. In the very end, all nations will come against Israel. Zech 14:2).
Yikes. Super-volcano found under Hong Kong Krakatau a mere firecracker compared to thankfully-dormant discovery “Hong Kong geologists have revealed for the first time the full extent of an ancient supervolcano with a diameter of 18km sitting beneath the former British colony. The giant ash monster is thought to be of the same collapse caldera type as the infamous Krakatau volcano which killed tens of thousands and literally rocked the world when it blasted open near the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra in 1883. The discovery … is one of only around 50 such volcanoes in the world…”
People stand on large hexagonal columns of volcanic rock, southeast of Hong Kong in this handout photo released August 30, 2012.
(Revelation 6:12 says that in the Tribulation, the sun will be darkened and look like sackcloth. This is similar to when the sun turned dim and looked like bloody sackcloth when Iceland’s volcano Laki erupted in 1784 and again in 1815 when Mt Tambora erupted. Tambora was an explosion that was actually more devastating than 1883’s more famous Krakatau eruption. Tambora is in the Indian Ocean, and its explosion caused the weather in 1816 to turn bizarre. “Spring came but then everything seemed to turn backward, as cold temperatures returned. The sky seemed permanently overcast. The lack of sunlight became so severe that farmers lost their crops and food shortages were reported in Ireland, France, England, and the United States.” (source).
Krakataoa’s volcanic dust thrown into the atmosphere affected the weather around the world for at least two years. Note that Laki, Tambora, and Krakatau are not even super-volcanoes. A super-volcano is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejecta volume greater than 1,000 km3 (240 cu mi). This is thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. For example, Krakatau’s eruption emitted ‘only’ 25 km3.
Though scientists are still finding supervolcanoes and various lists differ, this one seems to be the most stable. Interesting that three of the world’s 6 or 7 supervolcanoes are in the US
US – The Yellowstone Caldera US – The Long Valley Caldera in east central California US – Valles Caldera in northern New Mexico Sumatra – Lake Toba New Zealand – Taupo Caldera Japan – Aira Caldera
Imagine in the Tribulation when the super-volcanoes go off and all of Hong Kong is vaporized in a moment. This news from the Krakatoa eruption is sobering. “Weeks after the eruption large pieces began drifting in with the tides along the coast of Madagascar, an island off the east coast of Africa. Some of the large pieces of volcanic rock had animal and human skeletons embedded in them. They were grisly relics of Krakatoa.”
This NOVA article says, “A supereruption is to all eruptions that have ever occurred in recorded history like a bolt of lightning is to a static spark in your sweater.”
One can begin to see how the prophesied Tribulation death toll of first a quarter of the earth and then a third of the earth will rack up quickly.
Hal Lindsey reports tonight of the four global spheres of power that are integral to last days prophecy.
1. Eurozone/Revived Roman Empire (Dan 2 & 11) 2. Gog-Magog/ Russia (Ezekiel 38-39) 3. King of the East/Asian world power (Revelation 9 & 16). 4. King of the South/ Muslim nations along 10-40 belt. (Daniel 11:40-45).
5. United States- is the 5th sphere of power currently in play which is rapidly declining into oblivion and will play no role in coming prophetic events. Our distancing from Jerusalem and treasonous acts against Israel along with the rising terror attacks in the US, increased natural disasters, monetary issues and famines/drought are part of the prophecy itself. We curse Israel, we are cursed. All who try to lift Jerusalem from its place will be dealt with. (Genesis 12:3; Zechariah 12:3). It is NOT a coincidence that our acts against Israel are causing the woes upon the nation now.
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,
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. ————-
“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.”
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)
“Earthquakes continue to shake the south end of the Salton Sea late Sunday in a seismic swarm that experts say is seen only twice a decade. “Our system is choking on so many earthquakes,” she continued. “This area of California is deep soils, and we do not get as precise data as we do over the rest of the state, and that makes our data a little less precise.” The scientist went on to say that it is all perfectly normal, it actually is a “classic swarm.”
But the scientist below in a different article said they don’t understand why these swarms come and go, or in this article, why the faults act differently north of LA than they do south of the Salton Sea.
Earthquake swarm puts California areas on edge “A magnitude-4.2 earthquake rattled communities 100 miles east of San Diego on Monday night, despite observations from earthquake experts that a series of small to moderate earthquakes seemed to be slowing down and getting smaller in magnitude. … The seismic activity is not unusual, but scientists have puzzled over the cause. The last significant swarm occurred in 2005, when a thousand quakes, the largest at magnitude-5.1, shook the south shore of the Salton Sea. In 1981, a cluster of quakes hit a region five miles to the northwest of Sunday’s sequence, with the largest measuring a magnitude-5.8. The region was very active in the 1960s and 1970s.”
“They seem to light up and turn off for reasons we don’t understand,” USGS seismologist Susan Hough said.”
Photo Caption: El Sol Market on Main Street in Brawley, Calif., was hit hard by the earthquakes that hit throughout Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012-AP Photo/Imperial Valley Press, Brandy Ronek.
Every day we have a perplexed scientist roaming around his office with his hands in his hair, saying, “I just don’t understand.” Do a search for ‘perplexes scientists’ like I did. I got these results, some from this month and some from earlier in this year:
Surge in Squid Perplexes Scientists
Mysterious black hole type perplexes, bewilders
Mysterious nodding head disease afflicts young Ugandans, perplexes scientists and residents
Strange gamma-ray objects perplex scientists
Dozens of Stranded Dolphins on Cape Cod Shores Perplex Rescuers
This perplexity of not understanding why there is suddenly a difference in regular planetary orbits, anomalies in weather cycles, earthquakes in diverse places, and odd behaviors of man and animal will only increase. Luke tells us,
“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,” (Luke 21:25).
The sea and waves roaring is not meant to be understood literally but as an image of the peoples in great distress and yelling in uproar as calamity after calamity rushes down on them like waves crashing upon the sand. The same metaphor is also used in Isaiah 8:7-8, and Revelation 18:15.
The word perplexity is from the Greek aporeo, and it means “at wit’s end, at a loss, in difficulties, perplexed.” These occurrences where no one can figure out why they are happening will only become more difficult to figure out…until they are all at their wit’s end and at a loss.
Meanwhile the quake swarm at Brawley continues. The Imperial Valley Press reported yesterday, Brawley acts fast as quakes roll. San Diego Union-Tribune reports, “Schools are closed and residents of Brawley are being asked to conserve water as the town of 25,000 people braces Monday for what could be more earthquakes following a Sunday filled with some serious shaking.”
That’s our Lord, some serious shaking, before the judgment. Will you listen? He loves you, and wants you to come to repentance.
There is a report from Drudge about more sky booms, but this time people hear them coming from the ground. Previously, people in other locations have reported them coming from the sky. There have been so many booms, from so many places around the globe, for so long, that the name “Sounds of the Apocalypse” is widely recognized as the name for this phenomenon. I have reported on these booms myself many times. Do a Google search for sky noises, or booms, and you’ll see how many times they have been heard around the world.
In one post, I explored that the noises could be leak-through spiritual warfare in the heavenlies ramping up and used the verses in 2 Kings for support text (here). I also wrote about the possibility that it was leak-through from the throne room, and used support text from Ezekiel 1:24a, here. Thirdly I mused that it could be a fulfillment of a Jeremiah verse, here, this being the verse from Jeremiah-
“A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 25:31).
I’ll propose a fourth theory. Just as we do not know what is happening in the heavenly realms now, apart from what is written in the bible, we do not know what is happening in hell, or in Tartarus (the lowest gloomy dungeon where the fallen angels are being kept (Jude 1:6, 2 Peter 2:4). I wonder do the noises from hell leak-through to us here on earth? Are the fallen angels sensing the nearness of the day when they as the Revelation 9 locusts will be released and they make a great rushing sound?
“And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.” (Rev 9:1-3).
When that happens, and it has not happened yet, don’t you think it would make a great noise? Yes, it does, and the bible tells us how great a noise they make:
“In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.” (Revelation 9:7-9).
When an orchestra warms up before the concert, they make a cacophonous sound as each individual musician tunes his instrument. Then the conductor raises his baton and at once, they perform in harmony and in like movements. It is the same with an army. As each soldier jockeys his armor into position, there is a rumble and a noise as the preparations go on, which gets louder and more cacophonous as the moment nears when the Commander raises his hand to begin.
Before a football game, don’t the fans, in their excitement, stomp their feet and pound the bleachers, making a great racket?
The “wondrous strange” thing about the coming of the prophesied locusts is that they have a king.
“They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.” (Revelation 9:11). Yet Proverbs 30:27 tells us locusts have no king. So the Revelation locusts are no ordinary locusts. Are they demons? Yes. They have a form and they have faces and they have armor and they have a sting of a scorpion even though they are called locusts.
John Phillips wrote, “Picture what the world would be like if we were to open the doors of all the penitentiaries of earth and set free the world’s most vicious and violent criminals, giving them full reign to practice their infamies upon mankind. Something worse than that lies in store for the world. Satan cast out of heaven is now permitted to summon to his aid the most diabolical fiends in the abyss to act as his agents in bringing mankind to the footstool of the beast.”
Are the locust-demons in the pit pounding their bleachers and rattling their chains and yelling as they sense the Day approaching where they will be let out to destroy the earth and its peoples? I don’t know. Only God knows. The possibility of it reminds me of the famous quote from Hamlet. Upon seeing a ghost (demon) Horatio said to Hamlet, “O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!”
Hamlet replied, “… There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
The thing to remember about these booms is that what we see is not real. The life we are living is not the full story. There is more, much more, in God’s realms than we see and experience. Paul said,
“as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Here is the report from Drudge. This time, the booms are coming from the ground, but they are not earthquakes. Or sonic booms. Or mining. They simply don’t know what they are.
Source Of Loud Boom In Foothills A Mystery EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) – People from all over El Dorado County say they’re hearing loud booms several times a week, but there are many theories on what is causing them. “I thought it was thunder,” said one person. “It’s definitely not thunder; too consistent. I thought it was just mining,” said another person. “I always considered them to be sonic booms from flying aircrafts for years,” said Loring Brunius, owner of Sierra Rock Diamond Quarry. People who live near Pleasant Valley say their days have been interrupted by loud booms, shaking the floor beneath them. “You can feel it in the ground, no question about it. But no one’s been able to figure out why,” said Pleasant Valley resident Peter O’Grady. “I tend to hear somewhere between four to six of these things during the weekdays usually between 11 p.m. and 2 p.m. “Boom, boom, boom, boom just like that,” said Lorren Gonzales, who lives near Pleasant Valley.”
I posted on Friday about a robot that has been developed which recognizes its own reflection. I’d mused on the implications of this, within the concepts of artificial intelligence, the location of the seat of consciousness, and recognition of sin and evil in ones’ self. The nearer implication is the use of computers and artificial intelligence during the Tribulation when a one world commerce system is prophesied to be in place. The greater implication is the use of robots (droids and drones) in hunting humans and other evil uses. The greatest implication is man’s Tower of Babel, and how far God will allow humankind to go in making a conscious creation.
Is it a coincidence that today I found a short (under 2 minute) Youtube video about the most human-looking robot ever created, and the discussion by its maker about where the seat of the soul is? In this video, the Japanese Professor who created a doppelganger robot says that it is because of their unique spiritual beliefs that they blur the boundaries between humans and robots. He says, “It’s a question of where the soul is. Japanese people have always been told the soul can exist in everything and anything. So we don’t have any problem with the idea that a robot, too, has a soul.”
The implications of this are enormous. More portentous, in my humble opinion, than the inflammatory rhetoric that will spark a Middle East war imminently. When man makes a human looking robot, declares it has a soul, and sends it forth into the world (as the Professor in the video said he does) we have truly reached a moment when man supplants God as sole creator. God said in Genesis 11 in response to man’s Tower building and claim of a “name”, “this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6b). The Tower was built satisfy the spirit of man. God knew man needed Himself to satisfy the spirit, and He wasn’t being a big party-pooper when He dispersed the people and confused the languages. “[N]othing they do will be impossible for them” means they will embark on a downward spiritual and societal spiral that will only lead to death, because they were doing it apart from Him.
Secondly, God is the only name. Man has no name. Man is the clay, he is the creation. God is the Creator, with all power and authority. Therefore God’s name is holy and perfect.
“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11).
“And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’ ” (Ezekiel 38:23
Man will never be allowed to share God’s glory apart from God, it is His alone. Psalm 84:11 declares that He may share His glory, but it is not man’s to claim, neither by “making a name” nor by creating creatures with “souls.”
Watch and be stunned:
PS: robot is called a “doppleganger robot.” Doppleganger is a German word for “double walker” , or a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune.
I enjoy Hal Lindsey’s video report each week. He brings a credibility and a gravitas to the prophetic issues that I find refreshing. He also has away of synthesizing various news reports into a picture that no one else reports and is always illuminating. In short, he’s knowledgeable.
This week was particularly so. I found that the first segment, the 17 minutes he spent bringing us up to date on the Iran-Israel situation, was FULL of interesting insights. I won’t steal his thunder but I’ll mention only one thing that struck me.
The ‘hate Israel-wipe them out’ rhetoric from Iran is rising to a more obvious and frequent level than even Hitler’s was just prior to the Holocaust. More on that in the video. It occurred to me though as Lindsey was describing the diaspora, that the LORD has brought about a see-saw situation.
Prior to 1947, the Jews were dispersed all over the world, while Muslims were fewer in number than they are today and were concentrated in the Middle East. It would have been impossible to “wipe out the nation of Israel” (Psalm 83:4) because the Jews were embedded in nations all around the world and to wipe them out they’d have to start a war or a pogrom in every nation. Sure, there were pogroms and holocausts which attempted to do that very thing, but if Hitler had succeeded in wiping out the Jews in Germany, there were still Jews in the US, Australia, Russia, Norway, etc.
Now the situation is turned around. The Jews are concentrated in Israel and more are pouring in every day. The Muslims are concentrated in the Middle East of course, but their numbers are growing exponentially all around the world. Muslims are in the US in great numbers (just ask the Dearborn MI neighbors), France, Africa, China, Russia, and the Balkans among other places.
When Iran’s President Ahmadinejad says they can wipe out Israel with one storm, when the Ayatollahs say they will wipe the cancerous tumor that is Israel from the world and wipe out the Jews, when they say they long for even one nuclear bomb to drop on Israel, they have a better shot at fulfilling their hateful rhetoric now more than at any time previously.
Except that The Holy God of Israel is the protector of His people the Jews and they will never be wiped from the earth. All Israel will be saved, the remnant will acknowledge Jesus and be blessed with national salvation at the end of the Tribulation. (Zechariah 8:13; Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 45:17).
However, the situation is dire and getting darker by the day. The stream of messages even in just this month regarding the Muslims’ intent to wipe out the Jews and the nation of Israel are serious and should be taken seriously. God did not include Psalm 83, Isaiah 17, and Ezekiel 38-39 in the bible for no reason.
Please do watch the first 17 minutes of this week’s Hal Lindsey Report, it is heavy with prophetic insights. Lindsey makes a guess about what Israel’s intention may be in how to deal with Iran, and I think Lindsey is completely right about it. You’ll understand if you watch. The second segment deals with the terrible times and God’s promises, which is also a comfort.
I found a 12-minute Youtube compilation of natural disasters that are happening in the world. The disasters you are about to see all happened within the last month. There is nothing bloody or gory. Just a plethora of disasters that are coming upon the world like birthpangs. Note how often you hear comments in the audio from people who say things like “this is unprecedented” or “I’ve never seen this in all my life.”
I’ve reported on some of the disasters, like the Philippine floods or the Louisiana sinkhole. Below the video, is one news excerpt I expanded from the video that goes into more depth.
Here is a lengthier treatment of the moment in the video above where a sinkhole swallowed a man.
Sinkhole swallows man “As Typhoon Saola trounces Taiwan, surveillance camera footage showing an unidentified man being swallowed by a sinkhole in Sansia District, Taiwan, has surfaced. In the video, the man can be seen walking along the street until — within a split second — the ground gives way and he disappears. A rescue operation reportedly was attempted, but according to CNN the man later died of his injuries.”
I tried to screen cap it for those who can’t or don’t watch videos, but it really was a split second. On the video above, at second 7 he is walking jauntily along, and at second 8 on the video there is a gaping hole and a dead man under the rubble. Jonathan Edwards preached on this very thing in his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
“If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost. … for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. — That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up. You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it”.
Now …here is something else. I’ve posted very few posts lately on the prophetic indicators for the Mark of the Beast partly because it depresses me and partly because by the time the Mark comes both the saved and the unsaved are so far along in the Tribulation these pre-rapture signs will mean little to the Tribulation survivors. But this one struck me.
Robot learns to recognise itself in the mirror “NICO spends a lot of time looking in the mirror. But it’s not mere vanity – Nico is a humanoid robot that can recognise its reflection – a step on the path towards true self-awareness.”
Now if that doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will.
I am part of an interesting generation. I was born in 1960, before the space age. I remember the US astronauts on the moon in 1968. I lived most of my adult life before the internet, and personal computers only came along after college. I wrote my term papers on a typewriter and used a lot of white-out. Audio cassettes weren’t even invented until 1962 and my family didn’t use them until I was nearly in my teens. CD music, cellphones, cable television…all very new. I was 12 when Pong was invented and my dad brought it home. Now look where we are with computer games…
The ATM wasn’t invented until I was nine and their use didn’t become ubiquitous until I was a teenager. For most of my life, the notion of a one world payment system was simply unbelievable.
Now we are closing in on Artificial Intelligence. The major question in robotics and computering is “can machines ever become self-aware?” I propose that it is a moot question, because God would shut down the whole shebang before another “creation” with consciousness and intelligence appears on the scene. Once a robot is self-aware, would they then have to become cognizant of their own sin and then choose a savior? Of course not, the premise that God would allow man to create consciousness is ridiculous. But if a robot is that close to recognizing itself, how close are we to AI, and how close to the rapture? What will the Mark of the Beast look like…how will it work? The world doesn’t have long to find out, I think.
Fortunately those who have repented of their sin will be carried safely up to heaven before all this crashes down and man lives with his folly. We will be made fully perfect, and that includes an awareness of the entire body of the Church to a degree we know about now cognitively but don’t directly experience fully (due to our sin nature.) Best of all, we will see, know, and experience a life with Jesus the Savior clearly, and not dimly like we do now. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13).
Any person who repents will be in that blessed group of the Church Age believers who are raptured out. For those who fence-sit, or who outright refuse to believe, well, just think on this. If robots are becoming self aware, how long do you think it will take before kings, dictators, and evil men use them to hunt you down? (“Open the pod bay doors, HAL. … I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”)
The disasters on the video, remember, occurred in just this last month. What does God have in store for the next month? We do know the near future holds wars and rumors of wars, pestilences, volcanic eruptions, floods, drought, hail, fires, pain, anguish and death. Doom and gloom? You betcha.
Jesus is HOPE and LIGHT! I prefer the hope and light to the doom and gloom. If you repent of your sins, and you are a sinner you know, and ask Jesus to forgive them, He will. He is a good savior. So when will the end come? Just because He hasn’t judged men in wrath does not mean He won’t. He has been patient up until now:
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).
However that patience is coming to an end, and as a thief in the night, the end will come. The repentant will be given their reward and their relief, and the unrepentant will have given to them what they chose: the worst time the world has ever known or will ever know again. (Matthew 24:21). Like the Taiwanese man who was happily walking one moment and the next was dead under the rubble, Jesus will suddenly and without warning end His patience and begin His wrath. You really don’t want to be here for that.
I read something interesting last night. Politico, the liberal news & opinion website has by now picked upon it. I want to look at this from first a secular, factual basis and then a prophetic basis. Politico’s story starts like this:
“A Texas judge said this week that a “civil war” could possibly erupt in the U.S. if President Barack Obama is reelected. “One of the things is he’s going to try to give the sovereignty of the United States away to the United Nations. What do you think the public is going to do when that happens? We are talking civil unrest, civil disobedience, possibly, possibly civil war, OK?” Lubbock County Judge Tom Head said Tuesday on FOX 34.”
Here is the News clip:
Of course, the liberals will make this sound outlandish, far-fetched, and assert that the judge is a crackpot, if they haven’t done that already. But the Judge is right. I wrote about what he was alluding to four years ago on my other blog. I’m thrilled people are talking about this openly now.
Here is the context. There are two programs you need to be familiar with which dovetail into the statement the Judge made. One is the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, and the other is US legislation titled Global Poverty Act. First, the global picture, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), from Wiki–
“The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The goals are:”
–eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, –achieving universal primary education, –promoting gender equality and empowering women –reducing child mortality rates, –improving maternal health, –combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, –ensuring environmental sustainability, and –developing a global partnership for development.
Sound nice? Well…kind yes and kinda not. “Debate has surrounded adoption of the MDGs, focusing on lack of analysis and justification behind the chosen objectives, the difficulty or lack of measurements for some of the goals, and uneven progress towards reaching the goals, among other criticisms.”
The dastardly part comes in how the United States is aiding these Millennium Development Goals. I want you to remember that the UN is not a friend to the US and is openly hostile to Israel. It is a global organization under satan’s control.
The US legislation titled the Global Poverty Act is a dear piece of legislation to Obama, and is ideologically ground zero to his plans because the bill he proposed is specifically geared to supporting the UN Millennium Development Goals. He is totally on board with the MDG. What is the crime in that, you ask? Read on, and it is not only a crime but in my opinion, a HIGH CRIME. Here is the American Thinker’s summary of the US Global Poverty Act bill:
“On December 7, 2007, Obama introduced the Senate version of the Global Poverty Act of 2007 (S.2433). On February 13, the bill cleared the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, on which Obama and 6 (Biden, Dodd, Feingold, Hagel, Lugar, Menendez) of the bill’s 9 co-sponsors serve. The House version of the bill (H.R.1302) passed by a unanimous voice vote last September 25 [2007].
“Here’s an abstract of the proposed legislation”:
“To require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the [U.N.] Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.”
“If enacted, how much of a financial commitment would that represent to taxpayers?”
“One estimate is 0.7% of gross national product, or an additional $845 billion over 13 years in addition to existing foreign aid expenditures. So far, this proposal is barely on the MSM radar, but we’re likely hear more about it as a full Senate vote approaches.”
“Obama said of his bill, “With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces,” said Senator Obama. “It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America’s standing in the world, this important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world. Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing corporate profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere.”
The American Thinker editorialized at this point in their article, saying to the above, “In other words, other nations will like us better if we give them our money. And, our trade agreements should not be about business profit, but benevolent social action.”
Sound like Obama? I thought so. It is taxation without representation. So why is it a high crime to give 0.7% of GNP to an outside entity who will call the shots with our money? I believe it is a high crime because it cedes US sovereignty to an entity outside the US. It subsumes the US interests to a so-called higher authority without the US people voting to do so. Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. For centuries past, the idea that a state could be sovereign was always connected to its ability to guarantee the best interests of its own citizens. [sovereignty definition from Wikipedia]. Giving a portion of the US interests to the UN to control and then worse, be allowed to raise a tax on us without our say-so, is therefore the high crime of treason due to deliberate loss of US sovereignty. This assessment is my opinion.
The bill died in Senate committee and was never passed, but I wanted to bring it up because it is essential that you understand where Obama’s heart is and where his heart always has been. It is NOT to reduce poverty. The bill, if it had passed, would have ceded sovereignty to the United Nations. DO NOT let concept that pass unnoticed!
On May 31, 2008, I’d written on The Quiet Life, “The Global Poverty Act” would require the U.S. to initially direct .7 percent of the GNP of the United States into the United Nations coffers for distribution as they see fit, for food to third world nations. Under earlier agreements this would evolve into a national tax on the U.S. with the UN attempting to levy this on all first world nations. The U.N. would have the power to increase this rate of taxation. The U.S. would be required to surrender some of its sovereignty over foreign aid by putting it under UN control. The bill would force the U.S. to sign onto the U.N.’s Millennium Declaration, which would commit us not only to “banning small arms and light weapons” but many other collective acts. In other words, the very act of voluntary charity would then be under the control of government ownership.”
Whenever I hear words like “collective” and “global” I think ‘socialism.’ And do you know from when I hear these ideas the most lately? From Barack Obama. Back in 2008, saying Obama is a socialist got you soundly crushed on debate boards and anywhere else you “dared” to say it. But people with two eyes and a love for America spotted the buzz words right away, and just a little digging unearthed the Global Poverty Act. A bit more digging linked the Global Poverty Act to the Millennium Development Goals. It was all there for any person to research.
A few months before Obama was elected I wrote about it again,
On Oct 22, 2008 on The Quiet Life, I wrote about this Global Poverty Act, saying, “A report from Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media published a critique asserting that while the Obama-sponsored Global Poverty Act sounds nice, the adoption would “result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States” and would make levels “of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.” It dedicates 0.7 percent of the U.S. gross national product to foreign aid, which over 13 years he said would amount to $845 billion “over and above what the U.S. already spends.” The UN could raise that tax on the US at will, and spend it at will, with no say from the US, which is taxation without representation. It’s also forced charity.”
I was outraged that Obama would propose ceding sovereignty to a global, non-governmental organization. I thought that any sensible person would not vote for him. But he was elected, much to my shame. Author, philosopher, and frequent defender of capitalism and of promoter of free speech, Edward Cline, was outraged, too. He wrote,
“I rarely write commentary from anger, preferring a properly objective, pseudo-dispassionate approach to a subject deserving my attention. But news of the details, nature and scope of pending legislation in the U.S. Senate has caused me to make an exception to that rule.”
I feel your pain, Mr Cline. Continuing:
RE Obama’s 2007 legislation the Global Poverty Act, Cline said, “Americans will be delivered into a state of indentured servitude as laborers for the UN. Perhaps “indentured servitude” is too kind a term, for as horrendous a condition as it is, there is usually a time limit to such servitude. Slavery would be the more accurate term in this instance, for what Congress is considering is servitude by Americans in perpetuity, in exchange for nothing but the privilege of laboring to “save” the world without thanks or reward, of filling the alleged needs of others, of performing unlimited “community service” for the offense of merely existing.”
H.R. 1302 passed the House by voice vote, but was killed in committee in the senate.
You might be breathing a sigh of relief, because Obama’s 2007 bill has not passed and never will, apparently. Do not breathe a sigh of relief. The bill is merely an external representation of the hatred Obama has for this great nation, for capitalism, for the future of its people, and for life and liberty itself.
Texas Judge Tom Head nailed it. He knows full well what is ahead for America. Anyone saying what the Judge said in 2008 at the height of Obama’s Hope N Change stupidity would likely have been run out of town on a rail, but today, today we see how far we have fallen. After all, “You didn’t build that.”
Judge Head said, if Obama is re-elected, “Now what happens? What happens? Now I’m not talking just talking riots here and there. I’m talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms, get rid of the dictator. OK, what do you think he is going to do when that happens? He is going to call in the U.N. troops, personnel carriers, tanks and weapons,” Head added.
The American Thinker said of Obama’s Global Poverty Bill, “He says, “It’s not too late to claim the American dream,” and they cheer wildly, and some even cry. Don’t they know that the American dream isn’t a wish granted by a politician, or an entitlement from the government? Do they need a political seer to tell them what to hope for, and dream of, because they are unable to find it for themselves?”
Yes. Yes they do need someone to tell them. And the bible tells us they will find it in the antichrist.
Why are they are unable to find hope for themselves? They can’t find it because it only comes with Jesus. Only Jesus is hope. (1 Tim 1:1; Titus 2:13). Yet those without Jesus and thus are without hope keep hoping the next politician will offer that elusive hope to them and then really come through with it. In the end, one politician WILL come through, the antichrist. But in the end he will only bring hope’s first cousin, disappointment, and then he will bring death for the unsaved, where there will be no hope forever.
You might be thinking, after this long slog through legislative bills and global programs, old news and Texas Judges, that I am exaggerating. I am not. Look to the bible to see our future. A one world government will exist, led by one man, supported by one false prophet, and will initially offer that elusive hope to the world. The whole world will go after the beast, even the Jews. (Rev 13:13; Rev 18:23). For a global infrastructure to be in force, the world has to have been prepared to accept it. Obama is part of that preparation.
The judge is right. There will be civil war. Jesus said the time of the end will be characterized by war (Matthew 24:6; Revelation 6:4). Nation will rise against nation, but people will rise against people, even internally inside a nation. (Mt 24:7). The world will be in such disarray that when the antichrist proposes whatever solutions he proposes, the people will clamor for them. Global rule will come- it is prophesied.
From what quarter will it come? The vehicle for global rule could emanate from the Vatican. The Vatican is the seat of the pope, who is an absolute monarch on earth, who rules with impunity until he dies or resigns, and governs the world’s largest non-governmental agency, having a tight organizational infrastructure in every nation on every continent.
The global rule could come from the United Nations, another large, non-governmental entity with tentacles in each nation on earth. Wiki explains, “The United Nations Charter gives the United Nations Security Council the power and responsibility to take collective action to maintain international peace and security. For this reason, the international community sometimes looks to the U.N. Security Council to authorize peacekeeping operations.”
1 Thessalonians 5:3 says, “While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
Did you catch that? The UN Security Council’s charge is to maintain “peace and security.”
And don’t forget NATO’s army. The groundwork for global rule could come from the generals among that large, international army.
The vehicle on which the antichrist rides to global dictatorship could come from a heretofore unknown or unsuspected quarter. But it will come. And Obama will be leading the charge, I guarantee it. Listen to that Texas Judge, listen to those who are saying the time is near. Listen to the Holy Spirit prompting you toward repentance. THEN you will really have hope, because you will have Jesus! His hope is sure. If you don’t repent, all you’ll be stuck with is Obama, and where is his hope and change now?
Marriage was the second covenant God made with man. (The first was in Genesis 2:16-17 where God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.) God made Eve from Adam’s rib and told them to cleave together and become of one flesh. He outlined certain standards of behavior and expectations for them both, and that was marriage, the foundation of society. Why is it the foundation? “Because it is not good for man to be alone, I shall make a helpmeet for him.” (Gen 2:18). Together, they formed the first society.
So of course satan targeted for destruction that good and solid foundation of one man and one woman married and bearing children. Satan immediately incited the woman, Adam followed, and off we go toward the Fall of Man into sin.
From that moment in the garden, we have had a constant and direct attack on marriage, specifically its definition. Any variance satan can get from the biblical definition suits his purposes. Look at this-
The recipe for happiness? An enduring marriage and an affair with lots of sex In an extract from her new book, the controversial sociologist says it is time to redraw marital rules – with a radical rethink on fidelity “As dating websites open up a global shop window of sexual possibilities, as life expectancy continues to rise and we become increasingly sexually aware, how can we still take the crushing old rules of fidelity, that turn marriage into a prison, for granted? Why should we not be able to recapture the heady thrills of youth, while protecting a secure home life? The time has come, alongside the technology, to redraw the rules of marriage for the 21st century. Just as the Pill opened up premarital sex in the Sixties, the internet is opening up a whole new culture of affairs among married people. Sex has become a major leisure activity of our time, accessible to everyone, married or not, rich and poor. It’s time to start honing our seduction skills and join the playground. Yet it is the most puritanical nations, including Britain and America, that have traditionally resisted the notion of adultery most rigorously. Here, couples endure the challenges of child care, work pressures, mid‑life crisis and dwindling marital sex against a backdrop of repressive Anglo-Saxon hang‑ups about infidelity, seen always in pejorative terms such as “cheating”. “
How’s THAT for a total repudiation of everything God stands for in marriage??
Like:
fidelity
trust
vows
promises
self-sacrifice
modesty
resistance to temptation
purity
unity
From the Center for Christ and Culture, we read from the article published in 2006, “Why is Marriage Important?“
“Marriage is far more profound than our contemporary culture would lead us to believe. It is a life-long commitment that restrains self-centeredness, self-indulgence and self-gratification. It is the one relationship that effectively prepares and conditions us for community. By restraining self-centeredness and promoting love of another, marriage becomes the foundation for social order. When this commitment labeled “marriage” is reduced to nothing more than a mere contract between two consenting persons, or worse just another option, it ceases to restrain our self-centered passions. Self-centeredness harms not only that relationship but also others as well until it spreads throughout society like ripples in a pond. Abandoning the “others before self” concept of marriage for the self-serving concept of contractual relationships between autonomous individuals makes us increasingly narcissistic, ultimately leading toward moral and social collapse. Across America the institution of marriage is being assailed, reduced to nothing more than a sentimental ceremony between consenting adults, radically redefined, or simply abandoned altogether.”
Yup. All that abandonment is contained in the article we read above and what we see enacted every day.
In the distant past, we were given biblical verses about how the world would be in the far future. There are specific prophecies about the coming perilous times, and there is no doubt we are living in those perilous times now. Conditions that we see all around us that did not exist at all or didn’t exist to the degree we see them today, such as the blatant and constant pressure to dispense with traditional marriage, are all around us. This disposal is a tragic and irreversible mistake.
That satanic urge to dispose of marriage the way God intended does not come only from the homosexual agenda but from all quarters, as we saw above. Once the foundational block of society is done away with then all else can crumble. Is this not happening now? Of course it is. The excessive narcissism that homosexual or triadic or polygamous or adulterous marriage definitions promote lead inevitably to societal collapse. And thus, society is collapsing. Paul wrote of the conditions we were to expect:
“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.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
You notice the last part of verse 5 says “having an appearance of godliness”. The people perpetrating the perilous acts will be people who seem good, having a godly appearance, pious and sincere. Yet they will be in the inside, brutal, selfish, without-self control.
The article about marriage I linked to above concludes:
“Marriage is simply the highest of all human relationships and therefore must never be entered into lightly. It is the means of procreating humanity, nurturing and training subsequent generations, producing social order and for the Christian, the best means for perpetuating the Gospel. … If marriage is allowed to die in America as it is in other Western nations our posterity will inherit a godless culture.”
I maintain that THIS GENERATION is the inheritor of the godless culture. The constant barrage of marriage redefinitions (among other horrifying conditions) hath wrought godlessness in the last days. The only good news to this statement is that as the culture becomes ever more like it was in the Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37) and the Days of Lot, (Luke 17:28), it means the Day of the Lord is even closer and that means the rapture of the saints is even closer than that! But for the sinner, The Day of the LORD is near, said Zephaniah! Consider his words, ye sinners!
The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth. (Zephaniah 1:14-18)
the-end-time.org 