Category: prophecy

Posted in damascus, Isaiah, prophecy, syria

Western Syria is aflame, violence spills over to Lebanon

Posted on by elizabethprata

This information is from UK Telegraph’s live blogging tweets of the Syrian Uprising. They have stopped for the day, but you need to see this map they linked to.

They wrote: “Syrian uprising live. Live coverage of developments in Syria, as the violence escalates in the Syrian flashpoint city of Homs with soldiers loyal to Bashar al-Assad’s regime attempting to crush opponents. Join us for DAILY updates: http://www.facebook.com/syrianuprising, twitter: @SyriaUprising”

This was their last tweet for the day:

“21.05 All eyes are on Homs and the battle for Damascus but the uprising against Assad is actually far more widespread. Check out this Google map to see how almost all of western Syria is aflame.” [emphasis mine]

Syria – Friday 10/02/2012
“Videos and updates from around Syria. Towns with reported protests or on strike are marked in blue. Towns with updates alone are marked in green. Red markers show places which are under attack or where martyrs fell today.”

You see that there is violence at the borders. Indeed, the violence spilled over to Lebanon today.

“Syrian forces continued to bombard Homs on Saturday as Iraq claimed jihadists are crossing into Syria and weapons are being sent to opponents of President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. The bloodshed showed no signs of abating, even spilling over into Lebanon. Activists said 25 people were killed across the country, including a 55-year-old woman among seven who were killed in the latest attacks in many districts of Homs which also saw house-to-house raids. Food and medical supplies are running low in blockaded areas and many people are trapped in their houses. “We have intelligence information that a number of Iraqi jihadists went to Syria,” Adnan Al Assadi told AFP, adding that “weapons smuggling is still ongoing” from Iraq to Syria. In Damascus, Brigadier General Eisa Al Kholi was killed by three gunmen outside his home as part of a “framework of targeting Syrian intellectuals and the medical and technical cadres,” the official Syrian Arab News Service said. Al Kholi was the director of the Hamish Hospital in Damascus, it said.””

There is no way you can be a student of prophecy and know the prophecy of Damascus, and not see that map and get shivers. Damascus is 150 miles from Jerusalem. Now here is another shiver-worthy article–

Assad mulls use of chemical weapons (translated from Hebrew)
“According to dissident elements, the Syrian army had concentrated cluster of chemical weapons at a school in the city, Prime Minister of Britain: a horrible situation, very difficult”
“Homs opposition warned today (Thursday) from the Syrian army can use chemical weapons against the protesters. Forum social network today who told activists that received reports that the Syrian army gas masks distributed to his soldiers at checkpoints and cluster grenades and mortar shells containing chemical weapons were assembled one of the schools in Homs. Whether the Syrian military will use chemical weapons against civilians is thus sufficient grounds for outside military intervention.”

If they use chemical weapons, will they also use nuclear? The destruction of Damascus from being a city is a given because it is a prophecy, but how it is destroyed is not given.

Dr. Jill Dekker is a consultant to the NATO Defense Establishment in bio-warfare and counter terrorism. Dr. Dekker is also a member of the board of advisors of the Intelligence Summit. She gave an interview to the New English Review in December 2007. In it, she said,

“Contrary to how the US State Department and other agencies tend to downplay the sophistication of the Syrian biological and nuclear programs, they are very advanced. Syria has always had the most advanced chemical weapons program in the Middle East. The US and other western agencies have in a sense been distracted by this, but their biological programs and the “concept of use” are robust. Syria’s biological weapons capability today is closely tied to the former and current Soviet and Russian programs respectively, the DPRK, Iran and the former Iraq regime. A major concern is their strategic concept of use – which has gone from one of ‘special weapons’ to incorporation into their ‘conventional arsenal.’ That is a significant shift and one that seems to have eluded the US. The Syrians run their biological programs out of the Syrian Scientific Research Council (SSRC) in Damascus.””

In a 2011 article I’d commented on, the unrest that had begun in Syria those many months ago immediately sparked fears and the question was asked “what will happen to its chemical weapons?”

The 2007 Dekker interview summarized the situation like this:

“Dr. Dekker’s answers give a foreboding picture of how large and refined the Syrian bio-warfare programs are and how little Western Intelligence knows about how the programs were developed. The potential exists for a significant WMD threat in the Middle East and the West, especially, against America. Syria is a proxy ally of Iran, North Korea (DPRK) and terror groups such as Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Thus, the supply of bio-weapons and delivery platforms that could results in mass casualties makes it a real and present danger.”

So Syria has the weapons (means), the motive (‘concept of use’ doctrine) and the opportunity (revolution). That danger is even more present now, and combined with the prophecy about Damascus’s destruction…well, shivers once again. The battle for Damascus goes on overnight.

“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap. (verse 1)
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Posted in gog magog, iran, israel, prophecy

Foreign Press renting rooftops in advance of expected Israel-Iran war

Posted on by elizabethprata

This was in Hebrew and google-translated to English

The foreign media is preparing an Israeli confrontation with Iran
—Various agencies, including Reuters, the roofs of houses in Tel Aviv hired to prepare an attack on the town photography
–In addition, television networks in Israel sent senior producers
“Although non-ongoing uncertainty in Israel around the nuclear confrontation with Iran, Globes “has learned that the foreign media feel that the great event – meaning going to happen. Learned that recently hired various agencies, including Agence Reuters, roofs of houses in Tel – Aviv, to prepare for the shooting attack on the city. Also, the world’s television networks, more and less significant, senior producers sent to Israel to examine means of Helena, communications infrastructure, and protective measures in favor of big teams will come to Israel to cover the events. Between the agencies considering the deployment of these networks is currently FOX , NBC and CBS networks of American and European and Asian. One senior source said foreign broadcasters Globes: “It would be illogical not to prepare for it, when we hear your defense minister expressed constantly on. This assessment is similar to that which was here before the days of the Gulf War, the early ’90s.”

This article was in English originally, it is an opinion piece of irony and sarcasm from Eurasia Review:

Foreign Press Rents Tel Aviv Rooftops To Cover Iran War – OpEd
“You remember the descriptions of the First Battle of Bull Run when all of Washington’s high society rode out in their fine carriages and horses to picnic under the shady trees and watch their Union boys send the Rebs packing? Did they get the shock of their lives when the Rebel musket balls whizzed over their heads and the Union soldiers ran for their lives from the field? Or similarly, the Israelis in southern Israel who took lawn chairs out to watch the IDF smash Gaza to smithereens in 2009? Here’s a picture of another group of expectant, thrilled Israelis watching the action. That’s what the foreign press corps appears to be doing now in Tel Aviv in preparation for an attack on Iran. They’re renting the right to put film crews and reporters on the city’s rooftops (Hebrew) during the upcoming war in order to cover the anticipated Iranian counterattack. That way they can get great photo ops and pictures of missiles wreaking havoc on the city. What a story! What a feast for the eyes! Other news organizations like CBS, Fox News, and NBC are sending their senior producers to Israel to scope out the place in case they have to send in the big boys–the news anchors and senior correspondents (especially since no one can report from Tehran!).”

On one webpage discussing this story/rumor of the day, Daniel F stated, “In January 1991 everybody was caught by surprise at 03:00am in the morning when the first Scuds hit Tel Aviv. CNN, the most aggressive news agency at the time, had paid handsomely for access to a rooftop and provided excellent live coverage (and were also inadvertently acting as a forward artillery spotter for the Iraqis). Other news agencies were quick to follow suit until some understood that the Iraqis might be watching TV. So I suppose that some of the news agencies are “buying options”, hardly surprising and I suppose that the asking prices are still reasonable. More dancing in the streets of Gaza?”

We know from prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39 that Israel and Iran get into it, as well as Israel and the Psalm 83 nations (Lebanon, Gaza, Hezbollah, Hamas, Jordan, Egypt) and we know Syria’s capital of Damascus is obliterated at some point in between all this (Isaiah 17). The only question is, when. I don’t think we have long to wait to find out.
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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 eu, mark of the beast, prophecy

The European economy and Nebuchadnezzar’s statue

Posted on by elizabethprata

In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue, Daniel explained the meaning to the king. The statue was composed of four metals from head to toe, and each metal represented an empire. (Dan 2:31-35). The head of gold represented Babylon, the Chest and Arms of Silver represented Medo-Persia. The belly and thighs, or hips, represented Greece. The legs of iron were Rome. The Roman empire was divided, east and west as the eastern capital of the empire was stationed at Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey. The toes were said to be mixed iron and clay and very brittle, not holding together, and that is the Tribulation revived Roman Empire from which the antichrist will emerge.

The final piece of the prophecy involves a stone. “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.” (Dan 2:34). The Stone comes and “and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” The stone that was cut without hands is Jesus, who is prophesied to have all the governments upon His shoulder (Isaiah 9:6).  Mountains are usually symbols for governments. Jesus will rule and reign after He crushes the final kingdom at Armageddon.

So, are we there yet? Is the old Roman Empire revived? Yes. How do I know this? We see that kingdom has emerged now. If you look at the European Union you will note its government. It is composed of disparate elements which will be more disparate after the rapture and the antichrist seeks to unite elements which do not normally adhere and in truth will fall apart. The EU’s government is not a democracy. Not at all. Though there is a Parliament, in truth the EU is run by behind the scenes men in Belgium who were NOT ELECTED. Most of these men are former financial chiefs from the highest echelons of their former governments or from the extra-governmental International Monetary Fund or the European Central Bank. And the IMF and ECB run Europe too, anyway. The people of Europe who belong to the EU, five hundred million people, have no say in how their governments are run, really.

There are no borders in Europe. EU members opened their borders, so that anyone from “Germany” who wants to take a train to “Italy” or “Slovenia” will not have to have a passport stamped or go through customs. It is all one.

The EU operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states. Supranational means outside of national influence, or, higher than national. And you notice it says decisions, not votes. When 500 million people are ruled by a few men through decision whereupon they have no national accountability, it is an empire, and those men are kings of Europe. With that in mind, look at how the guys at Zerohedge phrase their post and presented a video in which economist

“David McWilliams succinctly explains how Europe has evolved from a democracy to a bankocracy, the implications of which lead to austerity for the people and a Franco-German imposition (the ‘fiscal compact’) that can only lead to social unrest and chaos. In this brief (and expertly illustrated) video, the Irish economist clarifies Europe’s ‘dirty little secret’ where economic policy is being run almost exclusively for the banks which, as we see in Greece and Ireland, means the political elite are becoming more and more detached from the people.”

Sovereign men who run large swathes of lands by decision, who are more and more detached from the people, are exactly the kind of governments we see prophesied in the last days, the antichrist’s government. Then, the rich buy their luxuries such as ivory, gold, silver, jewels, (Rev 18) and care not for the poor who work all day for pay that only buys a loaf of bread (Rev 6:6) and even then sometimes gets cheated out of it. (James 5:4). The wealth gap prophesied to occur is happening now, even as Europe revives its empire economically, politically, financially, governmentally…

EU unemployment all time high
“The number of unemployed people in Europe is reaching record highs as the economic crisis unfolds into one with significant social consequences.In eight member states alone, over 30 percent of young people under 25 are out of jobs. The worst affected continues to be Spain where half its young are jobless. Images of long queues outside unemployment offices paint a bleak picture in the Spanish state where almost a quarter of all its citizens are unemployed.”

The Baltic Dry Index is an indicator of global economic health. It has been collapsing–and though the Wall Street Journal is fairly staid in its use of language, they wrote that the BDI is not only collapsing, but “spectacularly” collapsing

Spectacular collapse of BDI
“The spectacular collapse in the Baltic Dry Index, which tracks the cost of shipping bulk freight, gives copper traders something to worry about, says Country Hedging’s Sterling Smith.The index is a proxy for moving goods around the globe and the now-30-session decline appears to indicate global commerce is stalling.”

After the stall…what? A monetary crash? An economic limbo? A financial revival? We don’t know exactly except for what Revelation 6:6 shows, that people will work all day and only be paid enough for a loaf of bread. And in Revelation 18:11-20 it shows economic Babylon’s fall but in that fall it shows that a healthy economic trade in luxuries had been going on. Revelation 13 shows that an economy exists, because no one may buy nor sell if they do not accept the mark of the beast (verse 16-17).

The Roman Empire has been revived, setting the stage for the above verses to be fulfilled.
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Posted in damascus, homs, prophecy, syria, UN security council

It’s all about Syria: Massacre in Homs, UN Security Council vote, prophecy nearing fulfillment

Posted on by elizabethprata

Sobering news today in the wake of the bloody massacre in Syria last night. Assad is hanging on and the world is tense and watching.

Last night I was relaxing while surfing the internet. I had my Twitter stream up, and suddenly all these tweets started coming in about violence in the Syrian city of Homs. Twitter was flooded with tweets and re-tweets of people saying that a violent battle was taking place. The tone soon shifted to people making an outcry that civilians were being massacred. The pain and outrage, distress and despair was evident in the people by the tweets I was watching scroll quickly up the screen. Hundreds upon hundreds of tweets rolled past my tearing eyes. Cries of shame upon Dictator Assad’s men who were killing innocent people. Reports of blood literally running in the streets. Mourning over children with no heads. Bodies piling up. A hospital obliterated. Many tweets contained links to videos and photos with appropriate warnings of the graphic nature of the images. I didn’t click on any of those but one did catch my attention: amateur video of a very large explosion at Hama. The Syrian inky night sky lit up orange as the entire horizon fired up from some kind of weapon of mass destruction. It was VERY disorienting to watch and read about a massacre in real time. Nothing can prepare you.

Some tweets:

  • My city is bleeding. We’re being attacked since 8 pm. 5 hours, 230 dead, 800 injured.
  • BBC’s Paul Wood breaks cover in Homs Syria. Reports Free Syria Army will begin “general assault” in next 24 hrs in retaliation for attack
  • BBC reports Homs “Does seem to have been sustained bombardment, large sustained attack”
  • The Syrian embassy in Tripoli of Libya is now under the control of Syrian revolutionists
  • Horror. GRAPHIC: Another video from Khaldiyeh, dead young men, many injured, people screaming
  • Jon Williams- Has Homs proved final straw for some? Syrian “Independence” flag reported flying over embassy in Greece.
  • Tunisia expels Syria ambassador over Feb 3 “bloody massacre” in Homs that killed over 200 people (via @AP)
  • Guardian news Top story: Fury over Homs massacre as UN security council gathers for Syria

Soon the tone shifted again to freedom fighters trying to organize worldwide protests at embassies outside of Syria. Some did respond, and were attacked, such as Greece. Others called upon the UN to shame Russia for diluting the latest resolutions condemning the violence.

  • People all over the world are asked to go to the Syrian embassies & protest Syria
  • They’re chanting “one solution, one solution – revolution, revolution” in Wash DC

One man tweeted, “Mankind has never been so connected as it is today. Yet, we stand powerless”. I understand his sentiment. We watch, we see, yet what can we as individuals do in the face of such vivid violence in real time? Some called for uniting at embassies around the world in protest. Greece and Washington DC, as well as people Spain responded and assembled in front of the Syrian embassy in their capitals. In other words, anger was palpable. I mourned, and soon I had to turn it off, the devastating implications of the massacre were too great.

“Today, European envoys to the Security Council said they would vote Saturday on a draft resolution backing an Arab League call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down amid talk that Russia would ask for a delay. The ambassadors spoke as they headed into an unusual weekend session. The urgency was heightened by an assault by Syrian forces firing mortars and artillery on the city of Homs.”

This morning “Obama said in a statement on Saturday that he condemns Mr. Assad’s “unspeakable assault.” He called for the Syrian leader to step aside and make way for a democratic transition.” This is essentially what the UN Security Council Resolution calls for.

UN web cams inside the voting chamber ahead of the vote show heavy lobbying of the Russian envoy to get him to soften his stance. A similar resolution was proposed to the Security council in October but members China and Russia vetoed it. They are trying not to have a repeat of that awful decision, particularly in light of last night’s massacre and the additional dead by Assad’s orders since October. Voting will occur momentarily… it is a tense moment for the watching world.

OK, I watched the UN Security Council vote live. Russia and China voted no, meaning they vetoed the draft resolution condemning Syria’s violence and calling for Assad to resign. Russia and China both are prophesied leaders players in future Middle East violence as per Ezekiel 38-39 and Rev 16:12.

I think often on the prophecy in Isaiah 17, whereupon Damascus will be destroyed, it will be a heap of ruins (V. 1).

This oracle in its entirety has a partial fulfillment in 722 and 732 BC of Samaria and Damascus. It is obviously a partial fulfillment because Damascus, though defeated by the Assyrians, the city continued to be a city under their rule. It was never razed to the extent that the prophecy indicates it will be someday. The middle of the chapter focuses on the defeat of Samaria, and then toward the end of the short chapter at verse 12-14a you see the following:

“Woe to the multitude of many people Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,And to the rushing of nations That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more.”

Two thoughts here. One is that ‘the mighty rushing waters’ is always used as a metaphor in the bible for outcries, restless and angry multitudes upset about something. Certainly last night was evocative of that verse. Today might be worse, considering that Russia and China stand by Assad’s violence and outrages against the people.

Washington Post immediately reported, “Russia and China have vetoed a Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. The other 13 council members, including the U.S., France and Britain, voted Saturday in favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the ongoing violence in Syria.”

What could God be doing, allowing such evil? How can any nation not condemn a leader massacring children? One answer is that we see the evil inside the Russian envoy’s and Chinese envoy’s heart that they would vote in this way. God is good and He allows the sins inside of us to come to their full fruition, eventually revealed to one and all. “But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them” (Eph 5:13)

France said of the vote, “France: “History will have no mercy for those who blocked the UNSC from bringing its support to the Arab League efforts.”

“Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.” (Ezekiel 38:1-3).

It is interesting to think of the plan God has for Russia and for China (Kings of the East). I don’t know about history but I know that God will have no mercy on them. Ezekiel’s prophecy continues regarding Russia particularly, “I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says the Lord GOD. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”” Gog is destroyed. Ezekiel 39:2 says that God will destroy five-sixths of their army. Then He gives burial instructions.

Secondly the verse that speaks of trouble coming in the evening and then by morning he is no more…what can raze a city that quickly? What would reduce a city to rubble so completely that it is obliterated? A nuclear device. I got to bed at night, on nights like last night, and I wonder, ‘Will Damascus be there in the morning?’ We are the final generation that will see these things come to pass (Matthew 24:34), we see the other signs, and at some point it will happen. What will be the final straw? Was last night’s massacre and today’s UN vote the final straw? I do not know, God knows. We trust Him and His perfect plan. Meanwhile, He wants no one to be lost, but all to come to repentance. Hang on Syrians! Jesus loves you! Look UP, for your Redemption draweth nigh, if you but repent and believe!

As for feeling powerless while watching the massacre unfold, we are not powerless. As the tweets rolled by, and the knowledge that many who had died fell into hell instead of heaven, I prayed hard. I prayed that the nearness of death would awaken many to His offer of salvation. I prayed that the seeds that have been left previously by missionaries and Gideons would sprout into understanding. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would grab those He is drawing near and they would respond with an eternity changing decision for Jesus. Prayer is the ultimate weapon. Trusting in His goodness even while dark evil lurks is the ultimate faith.
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Posted in blackbirds, mass strandings, prophecy

Blackbirds invade Kentucky Town; Mass stranding of dolphins, seals

Posted on by elizabethprata

Remember the Aflockalpyse at the beginning of 2011 and 2012? Where large swarms of birds inexplicably dropped dead in several towns? Well, LaGrange KY has had an influx of birds, but they’re not dying. They just keep coming, and coming and coming…

Birds Invade Town: La Grange, Ky. Swarmed By Black Birds
“Residents in a Kentucky town are saying “Get the flock out of here” to thousands of black birds that fill the sky each night.At dusk, the birds take flight in La Grange, Ky., and create what some locals describe as a “cloud of birds,” according to TV station WAVE. The birds nest down in a wooded area for the night and depart each morning in a huge pack, reports said. Fine-feathered friends, they’re not. Residents complain that they’re constantly cleaning up after the avian arrivistes, who started showing up last November in the community northeast of Louisville. Nearly everyone has heard their town compared to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film “The Birds.” The birds’ unexplained presence has allegedly coincided with a surge in respiratory ailments, according to one woman who spoke with WAVE.”

Dolphins are latest mammal deaths in New England
“Whether they got lost, sick or swam astray chasing food, 77 dolphins that beached on Cape Cod in recent weeks have died, the second time in three months New England has seen a mass of marine mammal deaths.Now, scientists are trying to figure out why.They’re also researching whether there’s any connection to a die-off this fall of 162 harbor seals, whose carcasses were found between northern Massachusetts and Maine.Scientists later determined the seal deaths were linked to an influenza virus similar to one found in birds but never before seen in seals…”

Poor things!

In the bible, God created man and creatures to co-habit. He blessed the animals. He said for us to have dominion over them. (Gen 1:28-30). We were all vegetarians and there was no killing. Beasts did not kill us and we did not kill beasts. God blessed it all.

However after the Fall, things changed. God cursed the ground and the food and told Adam that he would have to toil for it. He clothed them of skins, the first time animals had been killed for man’s need and use. (Genesis 2:21). After Cain and Abel were born, we see that they knew to sacrifice animals in blood to pay homage to God. (Gen 4:4) After the flood, God put the fear of man into beasts and Noah was told that all the animals, birds and fish were now food for man. (Gen 9:2-3).

But in Revelation 6:8 we see that the fear and dread of man seems to be gone from animals as they kill man in the plague of beasts that cause widespread death on the earth (along with war, famine and disease). Animals have been getting more brazen over the last year or so. They have been acting in unusual ways. Perhaps as the Lord lifts His restraining hand they are becoming more and more ready for the day when the fear and dread of man is lifted completely.

I can’t wait for the day when all will be restored! We will cohabit with animals in gentle fashion again. Nature will not groan under the curse. Isaiah 11:6-9-

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

Amen!

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Posted in austere, end of days. Austere Challenge, israel, prophecy

JPost reports US-Israel war games canceled

Posted on by elizabethprata

Today, on January 15, the Washington Post reports-
Israeli and US troops gear up for major missile defense drill after Iran maneuvers
“The Israeli military is gearing up together with U.S. forces for a major missile defense exercise, the Israeli military announced Thursday, as tension between Iran and the international community escalates. The drill is called “Austere Challenge 12” and is designed to improve defense systems and cooperation between the U.S. and Israeli forces. It follows a 10-day Iranian naval exercise near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.”

The military exercises were scheduled for April. “A senior military official said it would be in the next few weeks. He said it would be the biggest missile defense drill ever held,” the WaPo reported.

However, tensions between Israel and the US have escalated recently into an open rift over the red lines at which the nations would take decisive action against Iran in that nation’s pursuit of nuclear armament building. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that an attack against Iran over nuclear arms would send the Middle East spiraling into a conflict we would regret, Israel went ballistic behind the scenes. Which weren’t really so much behind the scenes, as the rift between the US and Israel is noticeable by now.

Today the Jerusalem Post reports-

“Israel, US discuss canceling missile defense drill“
“Israel and the US are in talks about the possibility of canceling a missile defense drill, billed as the largest ever in the country’s history, planned for the spring. Senior military officers told The Jerusalem Post that the drill scheduled for April has been canceled, while defense officials said that it was possible that it would be held later in 2012. Initially scheduled for April and called “Austere Challenge,” the drill was supposed to see the deployment of thousands of US troops and various sophisticated US military equipment in Israel.”

Are the military exercises on, or off? Which news report is true? It’s like Schrodinger’s Cat– we’re in a state of both being true and we won’t know until the box is opened.

Prophecy tells us that by the end of the end, “On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.” (Zechariah 12:3). Israel will be hated, have no friends and be constantly attacked. The United States’ slow terrible slide away from Israel has accelerated markedly in these last three years, and that is a woe to us. Because God said in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

It is plain and simple: any nation who curses Israel is cursed in turn by God. It seems to me that planning for years, then canceling the largest military war games ever held with Israel, abandoning her in her time of need, is a curse that will be judged harshly by Jesus.
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Posted in gog and magog, iran, prophecy, psalm 83

Russia: ‘an attack on Iran is an attack on Moscow’ and other Middle East news

Posted on by elizabethprata

Iran has been pretty bellicose lately, daring to threaten nations and assume power it does not have. Two weeks ago Iran threatened the United States by telling the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier to leave the Strait of Hormuz and not come back. That was pretty startling to hear. Stennis’s tour was up and they were about to leave anyway, relieved by the USS Carl Vinson, but Stennis did an about-face in the Arabian sea and there it is to this day. Iran also threatened to close the Strait, but that was an overstep because it is Iran and Oman whose territorial waters extend into the Strait. I wonder what Oman thinks about their neighbor’s threat to close waters upon which Oman depends.

Now Iran warns Gulf states not to compensate for oil shortfalls after Western sanctions
“Iran has warned its Gulf neighbors to not compensate for any shortfall in its oil exports after it has been hit with Western sanctions, the Iranian OPEC representative said on Sunday. “If the oil producing nations on the Persian Gulf decide to substitute Iran’s oil, then they will be held responsible for what happens,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying by Sharq newspaper. “We would not consider these actions to be friendly,” Khatibi added.”

He was really speaking about Saudi Arabia not making up the shortfall…

“Sanctions have been imposed on Iran when European Union countries agreed in principle to embargo imports of Iranian oil as part of the latest Western efforts to step up heat on Tehran. These countries will look to other oil exporters to increase output to make up for the shortfall and Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Saturday his country was ready to meet any increase in consumer countries’ demand. Iran is the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel, after Saudi Arabia which currently exports some 6.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and has an output of about 3.5 million bpd, according to OPEC estimates.”

So not only is Iran threatening Israel, not only is Iran threatening the West, now they are throwing their weight around to their neighbors, their brothers in the Arab League.

Maybe Iran feels safe enough to do that because Russia is their new best friend.

Russia: ‘An attack on Iran is an attack on Moscow’
“Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. The threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a military strike on Iran. “Iran is our neighbor,” Russia’s outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”

Neighbors? Not in the geographic sense. Two nations are between them, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Moscow is 1600 miles from Tehran.

Maybe Russia is still thinking Georgia and Azerbaijan are still part of the old Soviet Union. Yeah, that’s it.

On the map, look for Israel. See how tiny it is. See all the looming geography surrounding that tiny nation, the size of New Jersey. They ALL want her wiped out. In this Al Jazeera article, we see the quotes again about wiping Israel out. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has a solid history of tough talk, but it has escalated its provocative rhetoric in recent months. Sardar Mohamad Reza Naghdi, the commander of the Basij armed group, has said his organisation is “counting the moments” and waiting for an excuse to “put an end to the Zionist agenda”.

But that’s not news. Psalm 83:2-4 tells us this exactly:
“For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

In that same Al Jazeera article, the question is asked,

“What is motivating Iran’s tough talk of enriching uranium and shutting down a major global oil chokepoint?” Why all this ramped up rhetoric? Here is what has gone down recently:

–September 2010 the Stuxnet computer virus attacked Iran’s nuclear power plant in Bushehr.
–December, a high-altitude stealth reconnaissance drone was downed in Iran, and images of the drone were broadcast on Iranian TV with banners hanging off of its wings which read: “We’ll crush America underfoot” and “US can’t mess with us”.
–Several mysterious explosions at key locations in Iran. In October 2010, a blast at a military base in the western province of Lorestan killed “several” and was dubbed “an accident” by the government.
–Explosion in November killed 17 at an arms depot west of Tehran. Later that month, a blast was heard near the city of Isfahan.
–Although the US navy has twice in the past week rescued Iranian crews in Gulf waters – once from Somali pirates, once from a wrecked vessel – its presence in the Gulf is nonetheless unwelcome and seen as a threat by Tehran.
–Strings of deaths, disappearances, and, in one case -reappearance – of Iranian physicists continues to deepen the acrimony and mistrust between Iran and the US and Israel.

What is driving Iran, at root? Secular nations look for secular answers, but at root is Iran’s goal of preparing the world for the final Mahdi’s arrival. Therefore at root is a religious reason that is the polar opposite of biblical truth. That is because satan is behind it, and we know that satan is a liar and the father of lies, and a murderer from the beginning. (John 8:44). It seems that the demonic prince of Persia is still holding on to Iran for his stronghold. (Daniel 10:13)

As Jack Kelley explained in his weekly essay last night:

“It’s no secret that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preoccupied with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure, al Mahdi. This continues to raise concern that a nuclear-armed Iran would create the kind of global chaos he believes will be necessary to set the stage for the Mahdi’s return. Recent events seem to confirm this. For example, after years of promising that their nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful, Iran just announced their intention to test a 1 kiloton nuclear warhead this year. Iran’s Supreme Leader is thought to favor announcing Iran’s nuclear capability as an accomplished fact as soon as possible.”

“Al Mahdi, which means the guided one, is said to have gone into “occlusion” (disappeared) in the year 941 AD, at the age of five. Shiite Moslems believe he will reappear at the end of the Age. They say his reappearance will be preceded by chaos, war and bloodshed. When he comes he’ll establish a world wide Islamic caliphate, and following a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness that lasts 7 years, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.”

“As he has publicly explained, Ahmadinejad believes he’s been called to “pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance.” To some, this means creating the chaos necessary to bring al Mahdi back.”

Another motivating factor is the plunder. Perhaps that plunder is oil. After the Psalm 83 war occurs and Israel defeats the coalition of Lebanon, Hamas, Hezbollah, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, they occupy all those lands again. Remember, the LORD had promised Abraham certain lands and described the borders of it in Genesis 15:18-21. This is a part of the Abrahamic Covenant, specifically outlining the dimensions of the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants. Israel hasn’t occupied them all yet. But they will. (Ezekiel 20:33–37, 40–42; 36:1–37:28).

Here is a map of the Genesis 15 covenant lands:

See the scriptures that talk of the plunder being the motivation for Iran, Russia, Turkey et al to attack Israel:

“[Have you come] … to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.  Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’” (Ezekiel 38:12-13)

Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil. According to Wikipedia, “Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserves in the world. It is the world’s top oil exporter and producer. Oil actually accounts for “90% of the country’s exports and nearly 75% government revenues.” On the Abrahamic Covenant map, Saudi Arabia is the pink one.

With all the war rhetoric, drumbeats, and tension, I am reminded of Henry Kissinger’s old adage, coming to fruition in these last days–

“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.”

These heated words from Iran are emanating from the epicenter of all the world’s attention and tension right now: Middle East, where the oil (plunder?) is. The major problems in the world right now are there, as Isaiah 17, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38-39 tell us, and also Europe, the place where the revived roman empire will spit out the Antichrist. (Daniel 7:23-24). Did you know that Germany, currently Europe’s economic engine, is flirting with leaving the Euro currency and union? The news from Europe, the last empire in Daniel’s dream, is dire. The antichrist will control the world through food: access to it through purchase and through participation in the economy is denied unless the consumer wears the Mark of the Beast. The Gog Magog war happens because of plunder/ treasure, that the enemies have come to steal.

It is all shrinking down to oil & food, Middle East and Europe. Just as Jesus said it would.

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Posted in biometric, india universal ID, mark of the beast, prophecy

India: World’s biggest biometric identity plan progressing fast

Posted on by elizabethprata

The bible says that in the Tribulation all peoples will have a mark on their hand or forehead as a mark of allegiance to the antichrist, without which no one may buy nor sell. This is an astounding prophecy, because there are currently 7 billion people in the world. Even after the initial judgments where a third of the world is killed it is still a lot of people to keep track of. How is it done? Why would people join such a privacy-invading scheme? I’ll take a guess. Money.

The contractors hired to sign up people are paid by the sign-up. Once enrolled, the signees have the benefit of welfare rolling straight into their bank accounts. The pace of sign up in some places is astonishing. Read an excerpt below. Detractors say that though the program is currently voluntary, it could easily turn mandatory, and that the private biometric information on each enrolee is not secure. Well, we know how that turns out. They are right.

“He [antichrist] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” (Revelation 13:16-18).

I recommend the entire article from The Economist. It is fascinating.

India’s Universal ID scheme: reform by numbers
“FOR a country that fails to meet its most basic challenges—feeding the hungry, piping clean water, fixing roads—it seems incredible that India is rapidly building the world’s biggest, most advanced, biometric database of personal identities. Launched in 2010, under a genial ex-tycoon, Nandan Nilekani, the “unique identity” (UID) scheme is supposed to roll out trustworthy, unduplicated identity numbers based on biometric and other data.”

“Any resident who wants one can volunteer. The scheme combines work by central and state governments and a number of other partners—largely technology firms that capture and process individuals’ data. The goal, says Mr Nilekani, is to help India cope with the past decade’s expansion of welfare provision, the fastest in its history: “it is essentially about better public services”.

“All that should have been the recipe for a project mired in delays, infighting, empire-building, graft and bad results. Few expected UID to hit its ambitious targets. A year ago, only a few million had enrolled and barely 1m identity numbers had been issued. Warnings about fragile technology, overwhelmed data-processing centres and surging costs suggested slow progress.”

“Instead this week saw the 110-millionth UID number issued. Enrolments (which precede issued numbers by some months) should reach 200m in a couple of weeks. Mr Nilekani, eagerly hopping about his office to call up data on his laptop, says that over 20m people are now being signed up every month. He expects to get to 400m by the year’s end.”

“That is an astonishing outcome. For a government that has achieved almost nothing since re-election in May 2009, the scheme is emerging as an example of real progress. By 2014, the likely date of the next general election, over half of all Indians could be signed up. If welfare also starts flowing direct into their accounts, the electoral consequences could be profound.”

“To get a sense of the scale of UID’s achievement, linger at a mosquito-ridden enrolment centre in Uttan Gaon, a coastal village north of Mumbai. Huddled in a damp fire-station a young man connects a laptop, a binocular-style iris scanner and a glowing green machine that records 30 points from a set of fingerprints. In the gloom, his contraption could be a robot from an early Star Wars film.”

“Employed by Wipro, a technology firm and agent for the UID project, he has to get through 40 to 50 residents a day. His hassles, and those of armies of others deployed all across India, look endless. At times no one comes to enroll. Local government is supposed to run campaigns to lure them in, but indifference, bad weather and non-stop religious festivals keep them at home or partying.”

Another article on the subject from The Eocnomist. This one tales the slant that India’s poor economy and general bureaucratic incompetence (their words) were thought to be hindrances to the ID plan’s success. They weren’t. In my opinion this shows that no matter how disparate the people or the geography, no matter how much in disarray the economy is or will be, a massive governmental ID scheme can have rapid success. The article is titled, “The Magic Number“
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Posted in blood guilt, prophecy

Is there blood on your hands?

Posted on by elizabethprata

In Acts 18:5-6 Paul said that blood will be on their heads.

“But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

So, what did he mean by that? He was referring to the prophecy in Ezekiel 33:1-9, a passage known as The Watchman’s Duty

“And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. ‘He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. ‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’

“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. “When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. “But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.’

What does this mean?

Matthew Henry Commentary, Ezekiel 33:1-9
“The prophet is a watchman to the house of Israel. His business is to warn sinners of their misery and danger. He must warn the wicked to turn from their way, that they may live. If souls perish through his neglect of duty, he brings guilt upon himself. See what those have to answer for, who make excuses for sin, flatter sinners, and encourage them to believe they shall have peace, though they go on. How much wiser are men in their temporal than in their spiritual concerns! They set watchmen to guard their houses, and sentinels to warn of the enemies’ approach, but where the everlasting happiness or misery of the soul is at stake, they are offended if ministers obey their Master’s command, and give a faithful warning; they would rather perish, listening to smooth things.”

Last question, does this apply to us today? We are not God-ordained prophets as in the Old Testament,  and we are not apostles like Paul. Are we under an obligation that failure to meet will result in our own blood? Or theirs?

Here is how John MacArthur answered that question in his sermon on the passage:
“People say to me, “John, do you believe the Bible teaches individual responsibility?” There it is, my friend. If you die without Jesus Christ, your blood is on your own head. And I can say to you this morning what Paul said: “I’m clean. I presented you the Gospel. What you do with it will determine your eternal destiny, and the responsibility is your own.”

Now, our own salvation is assured, secure and eternal. Nothing we do can cause it to be lost.

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.” (2 Corinthians 1:21)

“Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:14).

And the LORD’S election of those whom he will have in His kingdom are sure. Nothing we do, or fail to do, will cause one of His sheep to be lost. Nothing hinges on us. However, we are, after all, under a specific commission to witness.

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:16-20)

Go. Make. Baptize. Teach. Obey. Command. Pretty strong imperative and verbs there.

I don’t know the final answer. I do know that we cannot claim Old Testament irrelevancy just because there are no God-ordained prophets any more, because the statement Paul made about blood-guilt in Acts 6 is New Testament, and it was not the only time he said it. He also said he was clean of blood guilt in Acts 20:26-27.

I think it all comes down to indifference. It comes down to the level of indifference we have for the commands of God, and for the destiny of the lost. And the risks we are willing to take in disappointing the one who shed His own blood for us. That’s all. I have no answers. Just food for thought.
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