I look at how the world is descending into chaos and I am simply amazed. The headlines today are so prophetic, and so cautionary.
The Economist today: “The euro: Beware of falling masonry“ “The crisis in the euro area is turning into a panic and dragging the zone into recession. The risk that the currency disintegrates within weeks is alarmingly high”
Weeks! The antichrist is prophesied to emerge from the revived Roman empire (Dan 9:26) and eventually install an economic dictatorship involving a mark without which no one may buy or sell. (Rev 13:16-17). That the currency of a swathe of nations who’d combined financially, comprising the a huge portion of the old Roman Empire, can’t be ignored in the face of prophetic economic and financial things to come.
Report: Explosion rocks Iran city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility “Semi-official Fars news agency says blast heard distinctly in several parts of the western Iran city; a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan went online in 2004. An explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that the blast was heard in several parts of the city. … The reported incident occurred about two weeks after Gen. Hasan Tehrani Moghaddam was killed together with 20 other Guard members Nov. 12 at a military site outside Bidganeh village, 40 kilometers southwest of Tehran.”
ABC reported of the explosion, “A major Iranian nuclear research centre is located near Isfahan city, although none of the Iranian reports of the blast said whether the explosion was near it. “In the afternoon, there was a noise like an explosion, but we don’t have any information from security forces on the source of the noise,” judiciary head Gholamreza Ansari was quoted as saying.Iranian media provided contradictory information about the incident, which came less that three weeks after a massive explosion at a military base near Tehran that killed at least 17 members of the Revolutionary Guard, including the head of its missile forces.”
Hmmm, the second mysterious explosion heard near an Iranian nuke facility in as many weeks.
NATO supply route through Pakistan stopped permanently “Supply trucks for American-led forces in Afghanistan backed up on Pakistani roads near the border after Pakistan closed the routes following a NATO air strike that killed 24 of its troops.”
Pakistan is furious, actually. It seems that each nation is moving into the final geo-political positions…east against west, Muslim against Christian, Tribulation nations allied as per Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38, world against Jerusalem…
In 2010 I wrote about how the lens through which God sees thew world is through Israel. We know this because in Genesis 12:3 God said to Abraham- “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Israel is the lens through which God judges nations. What happens to Israel affects the entire world. In that essay I included come ancient map images. Ancient cartography depicted Jerusalem as the belly button of the world, and Israel was always dead center on the map.
I’ve been mulling over some things about apostasy. This is because in the course of my online and real life discernment and encouragement ministry, I see that the essential doctrines of our faith not only are being eroded “out there”, but also “in here”, in Christian places and in people close to me. I am horrified at the depth and breadth of the erosion of what I believed were the obvious givens. I am grieving over the adherence of many people to the destructive heresies.
In my mind, the “obvious givens” start with the the Gospel. That Sovereign God Jesus lived as fully man on earth, was sinless, died on the cross, bore the wrath of God for payment of our sins, was buried and resurrected by the power of God on the third day. That’s the Gospel. One must believe those essentials in order to be saved. But even this basic tenet, the one that distinguishes us from ALL other philosophies, doctrines, faiths and assertions, is being corrupted daily. I had known it was bad in our faith. I had believed the prophesies about how bad it would get. I hadn’t realized how bad the foundations had been eroded, or how many people are affected.
I worry strongly for the mature in the faith who are being drawn away by doctrines of devils, seducing spirits, empty philosophies that are said to come. (1 Timothy 4:1, Colossians 2:8).
I’m worried for the new believers in our faith who watch the way mature believers act and listen to what the mature believers say as they get carried away with seducing spirits and the new ones are being carried away too.
I’m shifting my focus from discernment and encouragement to explain simply what the basics are. There are people out there who believe we can be saved if we dream of Jesus in a jungle or that God is so big He could justly accept people into heaven who have not been born again by faith in ALL the Gospel… Our brethren are at risk from these false and vain philosophies!
So for a while I’m going to go back to the basics. We have to look at these things through an end time lens, well, because we are in the end time. As a matter of fact, the end time deceptions are simply exploding right now, at a pace that faints my heart. I want to do this because when we’re gone, and it seems that we will be soon, the people who are left behind and need to convert will need milk.
Jesus is tantamount. His Word must be adhered to strictly. Jesus finished His Sermon on the Mount, a lengthy discourse on how to live as a follower of Him. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:26-27).
The Word of God is our rock. It will never fall. Let’s begin… This “Back to Basics” series will continue on Saturday and then into next week. I am glad, because I need to re-study the Gospel, the basics, because we can never outgrow the original, transcendent, saving basics of the faith. They’re eternal and encouraging for one and all from the newborn believer to the old in the faith.
In the early parts of this year, actually beginning in mid-December 2010 in Tunisia, protests and violence sprang up in many Middle East nations, so much so that the the protests veered to revolutions and dictators were toppled. It has become known as the Arab Spring. Egypt and Libya’s dictators were toppled, Algeria, Iraq, Golan Heights, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Sudan’s governments were affected one way or another. But the longest-lasting violence has been in Syria. It began last March and the violence is ongoing, and is getting worse. Many nations, even the allies of Syria in the Arab League have all expressed frustration with the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and called for him to stop killing his citizens. Bashad has been seemingly impervious to resolutions, diplomatic entreaties, threats of sanctions or even heavily veiled military nudges from neighbor Turkey.
As a result of all this, tensions are at a critical height. There is talk of attack. There is talk of military intervention, all-out civil war. Israel has been very busy getting Iron Dome deployed and other military preparations, some say, for a strike on Iran. I’m not so sure.
It feels like the noose is tightening, doesn’t it? That all things are drawing together. And you have to suspect that these overt military actions are being accompanied by many other actions happening covertly. I’m not a military analyst but when the United States deploys an aircraft carrier to an area near the prophetic epicenter without explanation, but that area is in the bulls-eye of prophecy at the close of the church age, I pay attention. That Syria’s violence is causing the most tension of all the nations mentioned above, and that Syria (Damascus) is dead center of the most clearly unfulfilled end of days military prophecy ever, then I really pay attention.
The Isaiah 17 prophecy against Damascus, that Damascus will be destroyed, razed to the ground and removed from being a city, seems like it could occur any day. The prophecy is in the passive tense, meaning, it doesn’t declare who causes the city to be destroyed, only that it will be. It could be destroyed by Israel, the US, an accidental conflagration set off by Syrians themselves as their chemical, biological, and/or nuclear stockpile gets grabbed by the revolutionaries, by God directly, or by another way we do not suspect. But Damascus will be destroyed, and the prophecy goes on to say it will happen overnight, “Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more.” (Isaiah 17:14)
“I observe a simmering threat in the region based on a Sunni-Shiite divide,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday. “It … has the potential to move the Muslim world from the 21st century into the darkness of the Middle Ages.”
President Gul speaks truer words than he knows…war is going to come to the Middle East (Is 17, Psalm 83, Ezekiel 38, 39,) and then to all of us (Matthew 24:6, Revelation 6:3-4). And with that, comes the rapture.
We are stunningly close to the rapture. This is the long-awaited event which closes the church age and brings Jesus’s church to his bosom (2 Thessalonians 2:1). All people since the cross who have believed on Jesus as the ONLY way to heaven by repenting of their sins to the ONLY One who can forgive them, will be gathered alive and transformed, or resurrected and transformed, and brought bodily up to meet Him in the air. (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). He will lead us to the place to which He has been preparing for us. (John 14:3). This is for the purpose of removing and protecting His bride throughout the Tribulation to come. (1 Thessalonians 5:9; Isaiah 26:20).
It will happen suddenly and without warning. Jesus will interrupt the normal flow of life on earth and poke His head in. Not a representative, He isn’t sending Gabriel, He Himself is coming Literally there will be a shout, (1 Thessalonians 4:19).
About that shout…not that the Lord will shout, but in the commentaries I read, they seem to agree that the translation of that word shout means “the word here used is observed by many to signify such a noise or shout as is made either by mariners, when they pull and row together; and shout to direct and encourage one another; or to an army with the general at the head of it, when about to undertake some considerable action, to enter on a battle, and make the onset; Christ will now appear as the King of kings, and Lord of lords, as the Judge of the whole earth, attended with the host, or armies of heaven, and the shout of a king will be among them: perhaps the same is intended, as by the voice of a great multitude.”
Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website as well as the guys from Zerohedge are reporting on the first casualty of the MF Global bankruptcy, which is also part of an accelerating momentum toward total economic collapse.
MF Global was one of the ten biggest bankruptcies ever, according to the Wall Street Journal last week when the news came out. The effect was that it became a purgatory for MF Global Customers, and about 33,000 Account-Holders couldn’t get to their cash. ‘My Entire Business Has Come to a Halt’ said one, and this is true for thousands of the little people. Even the big people were affected. Gerald Celente of Trends Research said that his account was emptied and all his positions on gold were closed. The ultimate effect was on us all, as all big bankruptcies are wont to be.
Today a broker closed her business and sent a letter to her customers explaining why. She is Ann Barnhardt, of Barnhardt Capital Management, Inc. and her letter is making huge waves. Rush read it on today’s program, The Blaze posted it, and Zerohedge published it too. Ms. Barnhardt is commercial hedge broker specializing in cattle and grain, representing Farmers, ranchers, etc:
“It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.”
“The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.”
“Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.”
“I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.”
“And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism.”
More at links above.
So what does this mean? Well, did the Romans in 410AD know that their city had declined so deeply that the Visigoths were coming to sack it? Likely not. Though it was no longer the capital of the empire, it was still called ‘the eternal city.’
And here we are again, 1600 years later in Europe, looking at a collapse yet again. Or are we? We know that the monetary system currently in place will be replaced with the mark of the beast, a mark that allows only people possessing it to buy and sell. (Rev 13:15-17). We assume that this one world economic system also means the European Union will have collapsed, but it also means that it could re-shape and reform into a geo-political entity from which the antichrist emerges.
“A lot of people were puzzled about what German Chancellor Angela Merkel meant when she recently stated that the ultimate solution to the financial crisis in the EU would “mean more Europe, not less Europe”. Well, now we are finding out. A leaked internal German government memo entitled “The Future of the EU: Required Integration Policy Improvements for the Creation of a Stability Union” actually proposes the creation of a “European Monetary Fund” which would be given the power to run the economies of troubled European nations. This “stability union” would be quickly followed by the creation of a full-fledged “political union”. Essentially, this leaked memo proposes the creation of a “European Superstate” which will be crammed down the throats of the rest of Europe whether they like it or not. National sovereignty would be a thing of the past and European bureaucrats would run everything. Of course this will never be accepted by the people of Europe until they feel the bitter pain of the coming financial collapse, but we are starting to see that there is already a clear plan for what the Germans wish to implement in the aftermath of the coming crisis.”
“A lot of people have just assumed that if there is a massive financial collapse in Europe and the euro crashes that it will mean that end of the euro and potentially the breakup of the EU. But that is not what the Germans have planned at all.”
“An article in the Telegraph has posted details about the leaked internal German government memo mentioned above. It really is startling to see that a full-fledged “political union” in Europe is being discussed at the highest levels of the German government….”
The Telegraph ‘s article explains that Germany’s plans, outlined in a “six-page memo, by the German foreign office, argues that Europe’s economic powerhouses should be able to intervene in how beleaguered eurozone countries are run.’
Snyder asks the $60,000 question, “Can you imagine what Europe would look like under such a plan? National sovereignty would be a thing of the past.”
Precisely. The Tribulation shows us that national sovereignty is no longer existent, as the entire world is managed through the economy by one man, the antichrist. The False Prophet brings about a one world religion. In my opinion, the time between the rapture and the Tribulation is very small; days, weeks, perhaps. I don’t think that when the rapture happens that years go by before the Tribulation begins. I think that it will not take years to get the infrastructure set up that will allow the antichrist and false prophet full reign to do their thing. I think that infrastructure is being built now, and is or soon will be in place. I believe that when the rapture happens it will not take much more to set in motion the events that are outlined in the prophetic books of Daniel, Zechariah, Matthew, Revelation, and many other books. As a matter of fact, an article on the website of Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is titled “Iran signals its readiness for final confrontation.”
I think Jesus is readying the world for the final confrontation. That final confrontation is not between Iran and Israel, is not between the Occupy protesters and the mucky-mucks. I believe that confrontation is one that has been a long time coming. It is one of sin versus pardon from sin. He is coming to judge sin, and He will deal with it briskly, righteously, and severely. He does not take lightly to sin and to people who refuse to repent of their sins. Those people are His enemies, and like any powerful ruler, enemies are dealt with. The mercy and love He shows us now will be gone, and in its stead will be His judgment and death. (Eph 2:3).
Prepare now for the confrontation: confront your own sin and ask Him to forgive it. He is a holy God and He is a loving God and He will forgive it. However if you wait too long you are risking two things: your own death and therefore your permanent state of sinfulness being fixed forever (and therefore consigned to hell), or being though alive, having been given over to your refusals to confront your sin and thereby making it impossible to repent. (Rom 1:24; Psalm 81:12). Don’t risk it! Time is ever so short. If the world was an hourglass I’d say there are only a few more grains left in the glass. Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/11/ann-barnhardt-closes-brokerage-citing.html
Remember the 1950s and 1960s frenzy about nuclear weapons? We had ‘duck and cover’ drills at school. There was a ‘Fallout Shelter” triangle poster on every school and sturdy building. Civil defense authorities and notifications were common in pamphlet, television and radio. Movies and films reflected the common dread that one day, a nuke would fall and WWIII would begin.
Then in the 80s everything changed when Reagan came in and confronted the worst evils of communism through harsh rhetoric and backed it with military buildup. The Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s. And that was the end of hearing about nuclear weapons for two decades.
The triangle fallout shelter placards faded. The pamphlets from Civil Defense organizations drifted away like leaves. First responders were into training and preparation of ‘sexier’ catastrophes like Ebola and pandemics and exotic chemical weapons.
When I was an editor and reporter of a weekly newspaper in Maine a few years ago, I interviewed the manager of the last Maine nuke bunker and wrote a story about it. The bunker seemed like an anachronism, cute even. Buried in the side of a hill in Windham, it housed, and may still house, the Cumberland County emergency operations center. The concrete underground center was built in 1960 during the the Cold War.
The Lewiston Maine daily did a story in 2005 titled,
Maine still maintains a bunker – just in case “The Cold War is over and fears it engendered about nuclear war have diminished. But the state still maintains an underground shelter in Cumberland County – just in case. Maine Emergency Management Agency Director Art Cleaves said the bunker near the state prison compound in Windham is covered by 12 feet of dirt and is well-maintained with an active communications center that would be used by state authorities in the event of a major calamity. Cumberland County’s Emergency Management Agency and dispatch center work from that site daily. The site “is a holdover from the 50s,” said Cleaves, noting that modern emergency planning is geared more toward terrorism than a nuclear attack.”
Well, everything old is new again. Or should I say, everything old is nuke again. Nuclear weapons and nuke attacks and mystery radiation are in the news and on the consciousness of citizens coast to American coast.
Mystery radiation has been drifting over many European countries like unwanted acid rain. They are calling it “radioactive dust”. No one knows where it is coming from and Fukushima Nuclear Plant is not the source. IAEA official: “We are a little concerned”. IAEA press release on the situation is here.
Riddle of the radiation sweeping across Europe: UN nuclear agency mystified by soaring levels “Very low levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected throughout Europe, but the particles are not believed to pose a public health risk, the U.N.nuclear agency said on Friday. NASA have released images of 2,400 stars, known as the Tarantula Nebula, that are producing intense radiation and powerful winds, believed to be the cause for the detection in the atmosphere.”
Huh? Unknown radiation continuing to be released in Europe?? And it is from the Tarantula Nebula??? Erm, OK.
Another article later in the week from Stockholm News reported that there was Radioactive dust over Sweden. The IAEA officials are quoted in that article as saying, “We are a little concerned, because there must be a source somewhere.” Germany, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Denmark. Reuters: reported on the issue, as did MSNBC. The AP titled their article “Abnormal radiation in Hungary, no risk seen.” Boy, if that isn’t an oxymoron…
Here’s something just weird about nukes in the news…. I can’t figure it out. CNews is a conglomeration of Canadian newspapers that include the Sun papers: the Calgary Sun, the Edmonton Sun, the Ottawa Sun, and so on. They have a neat feature of presenting one news item in graphic form only. It could be a map or a graph or a cartoon-like flow chart. The feature’s tagline is “In 5 minutes: news & events, visually.” It seeks to present information in a visual form with no other explanation, the picture being the explanation. So this week, out of nowhere, the Sun papers published this:
The graphic explores in picture form radiation maps, fallout symptoms, burn wounds, and the like. Why this? Why now? Because nuclear bombings are back on the table. With that comes radiation. And two radiation incidents occurred this week. One is kind of hard to figure out, which is the mystery radiation in Europe mentioned above, and the other which has an explanation is below. But the hard to figure out part on that one is whether the officials are telling the truth that the local citizenry is safe from effects from the leaked plutonium…
At least 17 INL employees exposed to radiation “IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Officials with the Idaho National Laboratory say at least 17 workers were exposed to low-level radiation from plutonium.The employees were working inside the facility’s decommissioned Zero Power Physics Reactor Tuesday afternoon when a container holding plutonium was opened, exposing them to radiation.”
In 1979, Iran declared war on the US and on Israel. They have been single-mindedly aiming toward completion of their goal ever since. Their goal? Wipe out the Great Satan (US) and the little satan (Israel). Iran gathered enough money and trained enough scientists so that they have been for at least ten years in actuality edging ever closer to making a nuclear bomb so they could accomplish the promised obliteration. The reality of Iran’s goal didn’t ever seem to penetrate US consciousness and we did not consider them a threat. Israel always did, but we did not listen. Things got serious a couple of years ago, (late 2008-2009) when Iran seemed to have made some astounding breakthroughs toward their goal of developing a bomb. This snippet from 2009 explains one of the breakthroughs:, which was to make a trigger for the bomb.
At that time, Israel wanted to make a foray into Iran to strike their nuclear facilities. To do this, Israel has to fly over Jordan and then the width of Iraq before even getting to the border of Iran. When Israel said they wanted to strike, the US was against the strike, preferring to exhaust diplomatic and economic options first. Israel was insistent. Then-former US security adviser to President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski said that the US should use their stationed troops in Iraq to militarily prevent Israel from flying over. In fact, the Bush Administration toward the end of President Bush’s second term in 2008 actually refused the Israelis permission to fly over Iraq.
Iran has only made more progress toward their goal of producing a weapon of mass (Jewish) destruction. Israel is fed-up. The talk all this week has been of nuclear war, nuclear weapons, nuclear strikes, Israel striking Iran, and oh, by the way, with the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of this year, which is only 7 weeks away, it leaves the area wide open for Israel to fly over Iraq to strike Iran. A huge military vacuum that would allow Israel free range to fly into Iran. And that timeline seems consistent with what the Israelis are planning to do, at least according to this headline:
Israel may launch strike on Iran as soon as next month to prevent development of nuclear weapons Senior Foreign Office figure: ‘We’re expecting something as early as Christmas, or very early in the new year. “Israel will launch military action to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon as soon as Christmas, intelligence chiefs have warned. … Sources say the understanding at the top of the British Government is that Israel will attempt to strike against the nuclear sites ‘sooner rather than later’ – with logistical support from the U.S. … In recent weeks, Ministry of Defence sources confirmed that contingency plans have been drawn up in the event that the UK decided to support military action.”
Why is Israel so hot to take care of business? This week an IAEA report unequivocally remarked that Iran is this close to a bomb.
This week Israel test-launched a Jericho ICBM capable of delivering a nuclear weapon as far away as Iran. Folks, there is going to be war (Matthew 24:6, Revelation 6:3-4). It is becoming increasingly obvious that the wars will be nuclear. Because the Tribulation will be a time of complete apostasy, lawlessness, and evil, there will be nothing to stop men from pressing the button. The Holy Spirit will cease His ministry of restraint and it will be an evil free-for-all among men. Some of those men hold the nuclear codes in their hands and the top officials will think, “Why not?” and press ‘launch.’
Israel refuses to tell US its Iran intentions “Israel has refused to reassure President Barack Obama that it would warn him in advance of any pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, raising fears that it may be planning a go-it-alone attack as early as next summer.”
Now there are two ways to react to the fact that the end of days is nearly here. You can search out that bunker in Maine and pound on the door when the bombs fly, hoping there are enough canned goods inside to feed you through the nuclear winter, or you can take refuge in Jesus.
He is the best option. He is peace forever, He is safety forever. Safety from sin and evil. He is forgiving, loving, inviting. He seeks you, even now, asking you to answer the call of eternity in your heart (Ecc 3:11). There is a reason the world is suddenly consumed with nuclear weapons, nuclear fallout, nuclear leakage from unknown sources. It is poison, and poisonous times are here and nearly overtaking the world. Come with us in the rapture. Things will only get worse from here on out, never returning to normal. But things are MORE than normal in heaven, and will be so forever. Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/11/nukes-are-suddenly-back-in-news-plus.html
Jesus is coming soon to judge sin, and to establish His Kingdom. (Daniel 2:44). It is going to last 1000 years and it is known as the Millennial Kingdom. (Isaiah 2:4, 42:1). He is also preparing a place called New Jerusalem for His church Age believers to dwell in. It will be established after the Tribulation and before eternity. It is a real kingdom, with real people, lands, and a ruler, namely Jesus and it will be on earth. (Luke 1:32-33). Jesus will have put satan in jail already for the entire duration, so there will be no devil tempting the un-glorified people re-populating the earth who live in the Kingdom. If you ever prayed The Lord’s Prayer, you have prayed for His kingdom to come:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10).
GotQuestions explains, “The purpose of the 1000-year reign is to fulfill promises God made to the world that cannot be fulfilled while Satan is free and humans have political authority. Some of these promises, called covenants, were given specifically to Israel. Others were given to Jesus, the nations of the world, and creation. All of these will be fulfilled during Jesus’ 1000-year reign.”
However, it is an exclusive kingdom. Not all people will be allowed into it. Any person can claim citizenship, but if citizenship is rejected, they will be denied entry to this wonderful kingdom! Jesus will only allow people who have been cleansed from sin to enter, people who have repented of their sins and asked Jesus to forgive them. Refusing to repent is in fact rejecting of your citizenship into this kingdom of perfect peace and love.
He is preparing us to understand that the time is nigh. He said He would send signs of the end of the age, and those signs are getting stronger with each passing day. The hatred and rejection of Jesus is one of those signs (2 Peter 3:3-4), as well as the love of one another growing cold (2 Timothy 3:2-4) and the falling away of Christians from solid doctrine. (1 Timothy 4:1). There are many other signs.
God said He will open up end time prophecy for all to understand and interpret so we can prepare for His Second Coming. (Daniel 12:9-10). That is why you have been hearing so MUCH lately about the end times, and the rapture and it is why there are so many Christians are saying “repent, the end is nigh”. He is opening up prophecy and opening the hearts of Christians to understand prophecy because the time IS nigh. It is the Holy Spirit opening up the hidden things because it is now the time to know them.
Now, the rapture is not the Second Coming, they are two different events. The rapture happens at the beginning of the final 7 years of Tribulation, and the Second Coming happens at the very end of that final 7 years. Then Jesus sets up His kingdom to fulfill the promises He has made throughout the bible, as mentioned above.
He wants one and all to enter His kingdom and His city but He cannot allow the wicked unrepentant to come in. He even sets angels at the gates of New Jerusalem so that nothing impure will ever enter. (Rev 21:12, Rev 21:27). Please consider your lives carefully, and understand that this decision for Jesus or against Jesus (which is the same as saying you decide for your own sin or reject your own sin) is a permanent one. Jesus loves each and every single person on this earth from the beginning to now. He knows the name of each person who is living, all 7 billion of us, and He knows the names of each person who has already lived and died. He wants all of us in His kingdom, either on earth or in New Jerusalem, but if you have rejected Him then you will not be allowed to dwell in glory with Him.
Do you really have so much pride that you refuse to ever say, ‘I do wrong and that wrong is against a Holy God’? All the wrongs done in your mind or on your tongue or by your hands are deeds that are crimes against Jesus, and He will judge those sins. However, He died on the cross and shed His blood as the atoning sacrifice for your sins and thereby has pardoned them. That is how you claim your citizenship- by accepting His blood as a covering for your sins and accepting Him as your Lord.
It’s fairly obvious that the world is in its death throes. I get right to the point, don’t I? People who don’t know the bible understand that the times are wild and things are happening that aren’t consistent with an orderly progression of years and decades of human advancement and civilization. For bible believers, we understand that the birth pangs are gearing up to the moment when the birth begins, when the water breaks and the violent, bloody tumult of labor ends with a renewed world and sin addressed. Why do we watch the times and look up because our redemption draws nigh?
1. So we are prepared. 2. So we can tell others.
The entire word of God is inspired and good for us to study so we can hear what He has to say to us. I don’t mean just read, I mean study. Think deeply about what the scriptures are saying about you have just read. Do not give a cursory reading, shut the book and then go make a sandwich. Study. Ask questions. Learn the cross references. Mull and ponder the words and the meanings of what the verse is saying. The book is active, living. It breathes. (Hebrews 4:12). It is sharper than a two edged sword, and you don’t read this book, it reads you.
It will educate you by the power of the Holy Spirit when you pray for wisdom and understanding. But first, we need to diligently seek that understanding by applying all of our critical faculties to what it says.
The prophetic scriptures are often overlooked as being allegorical only (they’re not), as being irrelevant (it isn’t) as being fulfilled (not all of them) as being tinged with a stigma as not as important as the ‘real’ verses (nope, just as important). I’ve noticed that though the bible says we should be excited about the soon appearing of our Lord, encouraged by the imminence, (1 Thess 4:18; 1 Thess 5:11) in awe of the Lord’s deeds (Ex 15:11; Ps 66:5; Zeph 2:11…), the closer we get to rapture the more that rapture watchers say “I’ve changed my mind- I think it could be decades.”
Yet God, in His infinite wisdom, put prophecy in His Word because He knows it is good for us to understand. The Lord has put prophetical truth into His Word because He wants us to know! Prophecy reveals His sovereignty more than any other scripture, in my opinion. He tells us thousands of years prior and then it comes true exactly the way He said. I never get over seeing that and reading it and knowing it.
“Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other;I am God, and there is none like Me,Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’Calling a bird of prey from the east,The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.Indeed I have spoken it;I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it;I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:9-11)
Prophecy reveals His sovereignty also because it shows that His purposes cannot be set aside, diverted nor thwarted. He is over all, and He will bring it about as He has said.
Prophecy leads us to Christ. For who above anyone else can do these things. Who is like Him? None!
“Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come–yes, let him foretell what will come.” (Isaiah 44:7).
There is no God like our God, and He chose to reveal details of His plan and purpose from the ancient of times to now. Learn it! Study it! Be humbled by it! You will be in awe of Him, AND you will be comforted. He will bring about our redemption just as He brings about these other things. He will bring about our renewal from creatures of sin to creations of His glory. It is a comfort to remain in His truth, His word is a security blanket that comforts as much as it convicts.
Folks, things are moving fast. It is hard to keep up. Joel C. Rosenberg used the word suddenly when he wrote about the current intensification of speculation about a possible preemptive strike by Israel against Iran. His very good and educational article outlining the current situation is called “Is Netanyahu Signaling a Preemptive Strike Against Iran?”
4 days ago: Rocket fire rocks south “South under fire again in wake of IAF attack in Gaza: Alarm sounds in various southern communities. Man hit by shrapnel in Gan Yavne; rocket hits school courtyard in Ashdod. Second barrage targets residential building, one injured. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.”
3 days ago: Ashdod mayor: “This Can’t Go On Much Longer“ “Ashdod Mayor Dr. Yehiel Lasri, whose city has been under a constant threat of rocket attacks, said on Sunday that the situation cannot continue and urged the government to take immediate action.”
Israel gets ready to unveil David’s Sling “The Israeli air force is preparing to deploy a new air-defense system with the biblical name of David’s Sling, designed to intercept medium-range missiles, while the Iron Dome system deployed earlier battles Palestinian rockets.”
2 days ago: UN: Syria complex bolsters suspicion of nuke ambitions “U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could be used to make nuclear arms.”
1 day ago: Will Israel Really Strike Iran? “Benjamin Netanyahu is edging closer to launching a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. A firestorm of violence across the Mediterranean would follow. And Tehran is already threatening to retaliate against the United States, writes Bruce Riedel.”
Today: Benjamin Netanyahu seeks cabinet support for Israeli strike on Iran “Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is seeking cabinet support for a military strike on Iran, Haaretz newspaper has reported after days of speculation on plans for such an attack.”
Today: Salehi: Iran Ready to Push Back Enemy Attacks “Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Thursday responded to reports claiming Israel is planning a military attack against his country, stating Tehran is “ready for war” with Israel.”
Today: Israeli PM orders investigation into Iran attack leak “Kuwaiti paper says Binyamin Netanyahu believes the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet, respectively Israel’s foreign and domestic intelligence agencies, may have leaked plans for attack.”
Tomorrow: (or sometime in probably the near future):
The bible prophecies that wars will occur in the Tribulation. It prophesies these wars in Revelation 6:3-4 as one of the Four Horsemen. Wars and rumors of wars are prophesied in Matthew 24:6. However, war as a general state is not the only prophecy. There are specific wars prophesied to come. The question is not what those wars are. The questions is when. These wars are :
1. Damascus will be destroyed according to Isaiah 17:1. 2. Israel’s abutting neighbors will attack Israel as prophesied in Psalm 83. 3. Israel’s far neighbors will attack Israel. known as the Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel 38-39.
The only thing we know about timing of when these wars may occur is that by the very end of the Gog Magog war, the church will be gone. This is because the LORD God literally pokes His face through the veil and reveals Himself supernaturally, so that all nations know He is the LORD-
“In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.” (Ez 38:16)
“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.’ (Ez 38:23)
But more importantly, not only the nations will know it is the Lord that rescues Israel in this attack (that they are about to lose) but Israel knows.
“‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel.” (Ezekiel 39:7a).
From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God.” (Ezekiel 39:22.)
It is this battle, prophecy students say, that calls Israel back to covenant with God, and the call for a Temple goes up and sacrifices resume after a 2000 year cessation. We know sacrifices begin because the antichrist stops them according to Daniel 9:26-27. So the wars will happen. We don’t know when- before the rapture, or after?
The wars are not long-drawn out affairs. In Isaiah 17, it explicitly says that in the evening Damascus will be there and by morning it will be gone. (Is 17:14).
The Psalm 83 war with near neighbors is thought to be one that occurs quickly and decisively. It seems that Israel regains the lands promised to her by God to Abraham. It is thought that Israel’s victory of all the near neighbors is so decisive that it causes the literal and mental relief and relaxation and thus will be living in a land of unwalled villages as Ezekiel 38:11- when the Iranians and the Russians come calling.
The entire scenario could be played out within months. The three battles, or wars, won’t take as long as the Afghanistan and Iranian wars the Americans have been engaged in. It would be more like Israel’s Six Day War.
Therefore we may indeed be around to see them. Or not. As the Lord wills.
Jesus concluded His ministry with His death on the cross and subsequent ascension to heaven, to be seated at the right hand of the Father. The right hand is illustrative of great strength and power. “Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.” (Exodus 15:6). Being seated denotes a concluded work. When we sit imports honour, as a king sits and his subjects stand. Sitting denotes pleasure, rest from labour and weariness. It evokes safety and security; one who is seated no longer need be on guard. As Gill’s Exposition says, “What adds to the happiness of this is, that it is together with all the saints, and with Christ himself.”
His hands have made the world and the heavens (Isaiah 48:13). His hands have made us (Psalms 73:23). His hands smote enemies. (Exodus 15:6). His hand saves. (Psalms 17:7).
Jesus said to the Jews that they will not see Him again until they cry out to Him (Matthew 23:39). He told the Disciples, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-2)
So when Jesus left, He said He would prepare a place. He did not say that He would tell His angels to prepare a place. He didn’t say that He would create a place. He said He would prepare a place. The Greek word for prepare in this verse is hetoimazó, meaning to make ready, to prepare.
Whenever you feel lost, small, storm-tossed, think of the John 14 verse. He goes to prepare a place for us. The God of the Universe whose hands have done so many things and will do so many things, whose hands smite enemies and create worlds, is using His hands to tenderly prepare for our arrival. He is preparing a place for us to dwell. That dwelling will be perfect, having been readied by the Perfect One. We will be partaking of the banquet of His glory forever.
The last years in this age on earth will be ruled by an evil dictator over a global economic empire: The Antichrist and the one world economic system. The current economic turmoil, riots, ‘occupations, and wealth transfer is part of that last days scene, soon to be fulfilled. Before we look forward to examine these things, let’s take a look back.
First, let us go to 2008. Obama is a Presidential candidate, campaigning. Many people suspected his socialist leanings from having been associated with socialists, (duh), allied with ACORN, with community organizing, and when he said to Joe the Plumber, “let’s spread the wealth around.” There was a severe pooh-poohing when the normal-thinking people said “AHA! Socialist! We knew it!” Socialism was dismissed as passe and Obama’s connection with it ignored.
Nowadays, socialism is far from passe. It has become de rigueur. Imagine that. It is accepted, desired even, by these thousands of ‘Occupy’ folk. In just three short years, capitalism and corporation have become dirty words while socialism has been dusted off and given a new shine.
Let’s go back even further to 1919-1920 and the rise of Italy’s Benito Mussolini. Mussolini became a dictator at home and an international ally of Germany’s Hitler throughout the Thirties and the Second World War.
“The Socialists, which by then had become the largest party, spoke theoretically of revolution, alarmed the conservatives, who quickly associated them with Communists. Thousands of agricultural and industrial strikes in 1919 and 1920 created a climate of class warfare and continual violence. Mussolini quickly shifted from leftist to rightist politics and began to gain support from middle-class industrialists who were fearful of working-class agitation and who objected to the agricultural strikes.” Sound familiar? (Source: “Western Civilization: Since 1300 By Jackson J. Spielvogel.”)
What is socialism? And what is its connection to the current violence in the Occupy Wall Street protests and riots? More importantly, is there a connection to the Tribulation and the last economic system yet to be fulfilled?
First, what is Socialism? “It is an economic doctrine, egalitarianism is the driving force behind socialism and communism. It is economic egalitarianism that seeks to remove the barriers of economic inequality by means of redistribution of wealth. … The problem with this doctrine is … a mistaken premise in economic egalitarianism which asserts that the rich have gotten their wealth by the exploitation of the poor.” (source GotQuestions.org). We’ve certainly heard enough about that lately. They say “greedy corporations” are to blame for the mess we’re in. They say ‘evil banksters’ put us here and we need socialism to get us out, because capitalism ain’t working, they say.
The Tribulation will have a one world economic system. There will be very poor people, working all day just to buy a loaf of bread. (Rev 6:6). There will be the very rich possessing vast wealth, (Rev 18:17a) able to live luxuriously and trade in luxuries at will. (Rev 18.) The Occupy Wall Street protesters’ hated “1%” will not disappear, but get wealthier and stronger.
The problem is, the Occupy Wall Street misguided are barking up the wrong tree, and in the end will not bring about their desired reforms but are in fact providing the platform for the Antichrist to appeal to the masses who clamor for ‘social justice” (code for ‘I want your money’). They will simply be on the losing end of a great wealth transfer, which history shows us happens every time socialism is attempted. Their grimy faces, currently spouting Hate Capitalism at filthy parks will soon be grimier, clutching the bars of the estate begging for scraps, much as Lazarus did at the Rich Man’s gate, and the dig licked his sores. (Luke 16:19-31). Such will be the fate of Occupiers who call for evil corporations to be done away with. The Antichrist will comply- and then take the money for himself. But I get ahead of the story.
The connection to the current violence in the Occupy Wall Street protests & riots to the end time is seen in the following videos. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. (Winston Churchill)
THEN
You didn’t know that America was engaged in violent class warfare in the Depression-era, did you? It was about Labor gaining a foothold, then a stranglehold on corporations. But it was not just about that. The Cleveland riots began as protests against foreclosures and evictions in a depressed housing market. By February of 1931 “Food riots” begin to break out in parts of the U.S. In Minneapolis, several hundred men and women smashed the windows of a grocery market and make off with fruit, canned goods, bacon, and ham. One of the store’s owners pulls out a gun to stop the looters, but is leapt upon and has his arm broken. The “riot” is brought under control by 100 policemen. Seven people are arrested. The Humboldt Park 1932 riot was over rotten food.
The point is, and this should come as no surprise, “Research Shows That Austerity Can Lead to Riots“. Writer Alain Sherter said in that article of austerity and anarchy, “Such events have many causes, of course. But one key contributing factor is economic shocks.”
NOW
Even the language is the same. Skulls cracked then, skulls cracked now. Though ostensibly these altruistic Occupiers want financial justice for all, what they are really showing us is that they’re poor (in their own eyes), or they’re lazy, (relying on government programs which are now in danger of being cut, and/or a simple refusal to work for their wage) and they want what you have. And they’re gonna get it, even if they have to break the law to do it.
I’d posed three questions, What is socialism? What is its connection to the current violence in the Occupy Wall Street protests and riots? Is there a connection to the Tribulation and the last economic system yet to be fulfilled?
In the third question, yes, there is a connection. The Tribulation is about wealth transfer, because the time period is first ruled by the antichrist under the influence of the devil, (Rev 13:5-8) and later is ruled by the devil himself. The devil wants to kill, steal, and destroy. (John 10:10). So of course he wants to steal your money, your comfort, your hope, and eventually your life. So, yes, he wants to destroy all the world’s governments, economic systems, values, and finances. His plan for your life is to either take all from you or get you to sacrifice God’s blessings on you. The protests in America now are not directed against the President, they are directed against God’s blessings on this nation.
This effort will culminate in the Mark of the Beast, (Rev 13:16-17) which forces a person to accept the mark of worship and be able to participate in the last economy, or to refuse the mark of worship and starve or be beheaded, whichever comes first.
Between now and then, the economic situation will become more dire, which sparks more people to violence, which diverts resources of police and municipalities, which allows for higher crime elsewhere, while thousands are occupying parks and refusing to contribute to the very economy they want to become healthy again, and end up in freeloading and perversity, yearning for a leader with an answer. It is a downward cycle we saw with Mussolini, Hitler, and will find its culmination in the antichrist. It is not only started already, it is well on its way toward that imminent fulfillment:
This week the Pope called for economic justice and a centralized world bank. Funny, because the Vatican already IS a vastly wealthy centralized government. However, corporatism and big government go hand in hand. “The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. A major document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should be music to the ears of the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.”
As for the violence, Jesus said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (Mt 24:12). The rise of flash mobs and the helplessness of store owners to stop them is a smaller version of what has been given rise now: Occupy Wall Street mobs who practice lawlessness in an entire city or large parts of cities, and outnumber the police. Instead of fifty unruly teens storming the store against one store owner, it is 5000 unruly freeloaders storming a city block against an entire police force. Even HotAir said that resistance is futile. Futile was their word.
“The fences came down at Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza Wednesday evening during a general assembly meeting among “Occupy Oakland” protesters. At least 500 protesters gathered at the plaza to reclaim the site of their encampment, which was raided by police early Tuesday morning… At 7 p.m., around 50 to 100 protesters succeed in tearing down sections of the fence on the opposite side of the plaza from where the meeting is taking place. … With public officials facing pressure from all sides in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and other “occupied” cities, the lesson from Oakland will most likely be that action will largely be futile without a large police presence extending for considerable time to come.”
So we have economic depression, austerity abhorrence, riots, impotent municipal government to keep law and order, calls for wealth re-distribution, and disdain of capitalism. These conditions gave rise to evil dictators in the past, only too willing to exploit the misguidedness and greed of the people in prior times, and it will do so again. Except this last dictator will be the personification of evil.
Wouldn’t you rather get to know the personification of Goodness? Jesus is that personification, literally incarnating into humanity to teach us what is needed to be cleansed from our misguidedness and our sins. Doing so is very simple. Not easy, but simple. “Believe on the One He has sent”, and be saved. (John 6:29; John 3:16-17). Salvation means you’re saved from hell, and to be saved you must first recognize what will send you to hell: your sins. If you want Jesus to forgive those sins, then be sorry you committed them and ask Him to cleanse you. He will. But don’t wait too long. The antichrist is knocking at the door, and soon, Jesus will let him in. Tweethttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-class-warfare-plus.html
the-end-time.org 