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Egyptian Presidential Candidate: ‘I am the Mahdi’

Posted on March 18, 2012 by elizabethprata

“According to today’s edition of Egypt’s Al-Wafd, a popular political website, the latest candidate for the Egyptian presidency, Muhammad Muhammad Musa, claims he is the hidden Mahdi — a savior figure in Islamic eschatology.”

“After exiting from the Supreme Council for Elections, Musa said that “he is the awaited Mahdi who will liberate the Arab world, and that the anti-Christ [al-Masih al-Dajjal] appears to him daily in dreams trying to prevent him from running for the presidency and liberating the Arab countries from tyranny. He confirmed that he ran for presidency in 2005 against [ousted Egyptian president Hosni] Mubarak, but that the military intelligence service and police arrested his son in an effort to force him to withdraw from the race,” which he did.”

“The Mahdi, of course, is “the rightly-guided one” who, according to Islamic tradition, will come immediately before the end times to battle the evil Dajjal and make the entire world Muslim. One of his signs is that “Muhammad” must be part of his name — and Musa has it twice — or some derivation, e.g., “Ahmad.”

“Nor is this some arcane fiction ignored by all. As Timothy Furnish writes over at Mahdi Watch:”

“Over the last 1400 years numerous claimants to the mantle of the Mahdi have arisen in both Shi`i and Sunni circles. Modern belief in the coming of the Mahdi has manifested most famously in the 1979 al-`Utaybi uprising of Sa`udi Arabia, and most recently in the ongoing Mahdist movements (some violent) in Iraq, as well as in the frequently-expressed public prayers of Iranian President Ahmadinezhad bidding the Mahdi to return and, in the larger Sunni Islamic world, by claims that Usamah bin Ladin might be the (now occulted?) Mahdi.”

Posted by Raymond on March 13, 2012 10:55 AM”
———————

Last March I’d reported on an interesting video that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had produced for their circles but was smuggled out to the West by an undercover operative. In it, Ryan Mauro of Frontpage Magazine analyzed the documentary produced by the Iranian regime. It was re-published in the Assyrian International News Agency. Here is Mauro’s synopsis:

“The Iranian government has produced a bone-chilling documentary that claims that Ayatollah Khamenei, President Ahmadinejad, and Hassan Nasrallah are talked about in Islamic prophecy as leaders who will wage war to bring about the arrival of the Hidden Imam, which the film says is “very close” to happening.” [ed. note: Nasrallah is the man currently leading the militant terrorist group Hezbollah.]

“Reza Kahlili, a former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who spied for the CIA and authored A Time to Betray last year, procured the entire film and says it was created by close associates of Ahmadinejad and was shown to top clerics two weeks ago. His chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, is said to have played a role in its creation. Kahlili allowed FrontPage to view a shortened version of the film over the weekend, which he says the Iranian regime intends to distribute to mosques and Islamic centers throughout the region with an Arabic translation and is currently being shown to members of the Revolutionary Guards and Basiji.”

“The purpose of the film is to make the case that Iran is prophetically destined to lead the war against Islam’s enemies, which is as a prelude to the appearance of the Hidden Imam, also called the Mahdi, who brings the final victory for Islam and reigns over the whole world. It uses current events to argue that “the final chapter has begun” and the Mahdi’s arrival is imminent. Most disturbingly, it teaches that Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah are the individuals prophesied to make this happen.”

“The documentary claims that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is the Seyed Khorasani talked about in the Hadith that leads a nation in the East (Iran) as “the preparer” for the Mahdi’s intervention. In July 2010, a senior Iranian cleric revealed that Khamenei had told close associates that he had privately met with the Mahdi and was told that he’d arrive before his time as Supreme Leader ends. Khamenei is 71 years old and widely understood to be in poor health, so the grand jihad that Khamenei believes he must command must come soon.”
—————–

This week Iran had come out with bellicose language of talk of destroying America. Joel Rosenberg termed: “Such language is consistent with the Twelver eschatology held by the senior Iranian leadership that says Iran must seek to annihilate Israel (the “Little Satan” in their view) and the U.S. (which they call the “Great Satan”) in order to hasten the coming of the Twelfth Imam and the establishment of a global Islamic kingdom or Caliphate.”

The feeling of imminence for both Christians and Muslims is heavy. Both religions share a similar end time eschatology, except that the Muslim eschatology is opposite to the bible’s and therefore exactly false. This link is to the transcript of the Iranian video, the title of which is “The Coming is Near“. Both religion’s adherents feel that the time is nearing for the final showdown between sin and holiness, good and evil, saved and unsaved meeting their everlasting fates. That the Egyptian presidential candidate is talking of these things, even that he feels he IS the final Imam/Mahdi, is not surprising, as the Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran feels also that he is a high-end player in the final events. Since Iran feels so strongly that they are the nation to lead the Muslim world into wiping out tyranny and liberating the population into Islam, I wonder how they will feel that now an Egyptian man is claiming to be the Mahdi. These times are daily getting more prophetic.

banks, iran, swift

Swift expels 30 Iranian banks from global banking system

Posted on March 18, 2012 by elizabethprata

Global Network Expels as Many as 30 of Iran’s Banks in Move to Isolate Its Economy
By RICK GLADSTONE and STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: March 15, 2012

“A global communication network vital to the banking industry announced on Thursday that it was expelling as many as 30 Iranian financial institutions — including the Central Bank — crippling their ability to conduct international business and further isolating the country from the world economy. The network, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, took the action to comply with European Union sanctions on Iranian banks, which were enacted in response to Iran’s disputed nuclear energy program. It is the first time that Swift, a consortium based in Belgium and subject to European Union laws, has taken such a drastic step, which severs a crucial conduit for Iran to electronically repatriate billions of dollars’ worth of earnings from the sale of oil and other exports.”

Follow up to some previously published stories

Posted on March 18, 2012March 26, 2022 by elizabethprata

FOLLOW UP

Let’s check in on some older stories. I can’t believe it has been 4 years since the Norway Seed Vault opened. I remember it vividly because of the event that happened a few days before opening ceremony. I’d done some research on the location, Svalbard, a rocky outcrop far north of Norway. It is a small island, and the furthest place north that is inhabited in the whole world. They specifically chose that place because of the lack of seismicity in that area. So of course a few days before all the dignitaries flew in for the opening, there was a huge earthquake, lol. It was the largest that Norway ever experienced and the largest ever for that area.

Norway’s biggest quake hits Svalbard archipelago
“An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude — the biggest in Norwegian history — jolted the thinly populated Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic on Wednesday night, the Norsar seismic research institute said on Thursday. No one was hurt by the quake and no damage has been reported in the islands, about 600 miles from the North Pole, reports said. “This is the biggest earthquake on Norwegian territory in history,” the institute said in a statement, adding that the quake occurred at sea, about 6 miles below the surface. … Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other leaders will be in Svalbard next week for the official opening of a seed vault which will store frozen crop seeds from around the world in case crops are wiped out by a future disaster.”

I got such a charge out of that. God showing who is boss of the earth, couldn’t have been clearer to the people who had the hubris to build their own ark. Here is a follow-up article on the seed vault that I thought was pretty interesting. I liked the photos and the artistic renderings in the article. Apparently they have been putting seeds in there all along and it is getting full.

SEED VAULT

After 4 Years, Checking Up on The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
“The other surprise is that we’ve had no bad surprises. When you plan something this complicated you figure something is going to go wrong. During these past four years we’ve had seeds come from all over the world and it’s been a gigantic coordination process to try to get seed boxes from all of these locations, a lot of which are in developing countries—Africa, Asia and Latin America—and to try to get them up to Oslo and then up to Svalbard on roughly the same day, so you don’t have them sitting out on some tarmac in the hot sun. It’s also surprising that we haven’t lost a single box of seeds in transit. It’s a miracle.”

Prepping and doomsday bunkers, a re-post

Posted on March 18, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Last month I’d written about the societal phenomenon called “prepping.” There is even a television show now about people who are preparing in various ways for doomsday, Armageddon, or societal collapse, depending on their flavor of cataclysm. But I’d written about the prepping phenomenon two years ago, also, when it first became noticeable. I’m re-posting it below.

TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2010

Doomsday vaults doing bunker-busting business
I get a kick out of secular people who mock Christians for preparing for the moment when the Lord will come collect us and doomsday ensues for those left behind. They say we are crazy fear-mongers, nut-cases and ridiculous wingnuts. Then they spend billions of dollars preparing for doomsday.

‘Doomsday Ark’ to be Housed on the Moon -A Remote Access Toolkit to Rebuild the Human Race
“Eventually, it will be necessary to have a kind of Noah’s ark there, a diversity of species from the biosphere.”

See, already, the doomsday seed vault, the doomsday genetic vault, and the private doomsday vaults we are recently learning about are touted as inadequate for the horrific things that are coming. So we need one on the moon. There’s the seed vault in Norway, buried deep in a frozen mountainside, which houses all the supplies that humanity would need to rebuild a green world in the event the one we already have is wiped out. There’s the underground vault in Britain that houses genetic samples that could help rebuild an entire ecosystem. “The thing is, though, as highly reinforced as these structures may be, if Earth is wiped out, chances are these vaults won’t survive. But a vault on the moon — that’s a different story. The Ark will contain the essentials of life and human civilization, to be activated in the event of earth being devastated by a giant asteroid or nuclear war. The construction of a lunar information bank, discussed at a conference in Strasbourg last month, would provide survivors on Earth with a remote-access toolkit to rebuild the human race.”

That will only work if the people who have access to the “toolkit” are alive after the asteroid hits.

The notion of an ark was original to the bible. The LORD said He would render judgment because man at that time continually had evil thoughts. The LORD was grieved He had made man. (Genesis 6:5-8). However, Noah was deemed righteous and the LORD made a provision for Noah and his family to be saved through the coming Tribulation judgment. He directed Noah to build an ark. Note that the catalyst for building the ark, a vessel designed to hold the precious cargo in safety so that earth can start over, was GOD’S. Not man’s. Notice that the cataclysm that came was because of man’s evil, not God’s.

However, we have fallen so far that now, that things have reversed. Man decided he can rely on himself to carry him through doomsday, a doomsday that will come because of the evil and uncaring God. Note that the fall-back position is of the certainty of a doomsday. That a doomsday will come is not in question. The question is what to do about it. And man sure has been busy these last couple of years, but he is not taking actions in the right direction. We now hear in the news of of seed bunkers, genetic bunkers, lunar bunkers, private bunkers. All of them are called “arks” of some kind. Biblical references are often made.

Vivos’s private doomsday bunkers are selling like hotcakes. ABC News said, “Armageddon. Apocalypse. The end of the world as we know it. Call it what you want, but they believe the end, some end, is near, and so they are preparing, buying bunker properties with hi-tech amenities. 21st centry fallout shelters to carry them through catastrophe. Vivos’s private luxury bunker touts that “Vivos may prove to be the next Genesis.” As the sales pitch went, “It’s Noah’s Ark, it just happens to be underground.” As the ABC News reporter says:

“There is now a critical mass of customers shopping for that extra sense of security.”

They think they can survive what is coming. They can’t. NO man can survive while relying on his own self, his own ingenuity, his own protections. They couldn’t before, they won’t now. UNLESS they are saved by the grace of Jesus and His blood shed on the cross for all humans. It is that, and that alone which will give them that sense of extra security.

Arks. Doomsday. Genesis. They deny the bible, but they prepare for its promised effects. And they will find that man’s preparations will be futile.

assassinate obama article

Mayor who says Obama a ‘carnal manifestation of evil’ won his Mayoral election. Handily.

Posted on March 17, 2012 by elizabethprata

Women are fainting again at Obama rallies. HuffPo reports that “Another one of President Barack Obama’s speeches was interrupted Thursday when a woman fainted. According to The New York Times, Obama had been criticizing his Republican rivals during the speech, which focused on energy policy, when he paused to alert officials that someone in the crowd had fainted. … Obama told the crowd that “folks faint all the time at my events.” Another woman fainted during a speech at Nashua Community College in Nashua, N.H earlier this month. In 2008 the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “We Shall Be Overcome,” which chronicled a series of Obama campaign events where women fainted.”

Overcome with what, though? Look at these women as they listen to Obama, for all the world they look spellbound.

Woman faints while listening to Obama, source

The NY Times notes this week, At Obama rallies, fainting spells resurge, but what is that really saying? That the weaker women are, the stronger Obama is? The Times reports,

“It is the third time this month that someone has fainted during one of the president’s speeches. A woman fainted last week as Mr. Obama spoke at a Daimler plant in Mt. Holly, N.C. A week earlier, a woman passed out as Mr. Obama spoke at Nashua Community College in Nashua, N.H.”

In 2008 the NY Times, as fascinated with Obama then as now, chronicled the fainting events, and mused on them in that aforementioned article, “We Shall Be Overcome“:

“What exactly are we to make of this? A cynic might wonder if the whole thing isn’t staged, given how often it happens and how well-honed and self-serving Obama’s standard response seems to be. But if it’s spontaneous, that’s in a way even more unsettling. At the New Hampshire rally, Larry David of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame quipped, “Sinatra had the same effect on people.” Sinatra made girls swoon by singing romantic songs. But America isn’t electing a crooner in chief. Obama has a talent for eliciting intense emotion–an ability that can be dangerous in a politician. What more does he have to offer? That’s a hard question to answer, and it makes the prospect of an Obama presidency quite worrisome.”

You got that right it’s worrisome. However, women are not the only ones demonstrably affected by Obama’s presence and aura. United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron fell all over himself this week at an event with Obama. The UK Daily Mail, never one to mince words, reported,

Starstruck David Cameron’s embarrassing fawning over Barack Obama and his ‘beautiful words’
“What David Cameron described as his ‘guys night out’ watching basketball with President Barack Obama in the swing state of Ohio was cheesy and embarrassing enough. But has there ever been a speech given by a British prime minister that was quite as cringeworthy as Cameron’s ‘toast’ to Obama at last night’s State Dinner? In the video below, Cameron starts speaking at the 8:20 point and almost immediately hails Obama’s ‘strong and beautiful words’. It’s downhill from there. Then comes what must surely be one of the most obsequious things Obama – who is well used to adulation – has ever heard. Obama, says Cameron ‘has pressed the reset button on the moral authority of the entire free world’. What? Pass the sickbag. Whichever way you look at it, that’s ridiculous.”

Even the NY Times Blog noted, “When Barack Met David: A Trans-Atlantic Love Story“
“This is intended as a quick catch-up for American readers who may have inexplicably missed the top news story of the week: you just had a visit from the British prime minister. And, by the way, his name is David Cameron. Foreign leaders turn up in Washington with the same regularity that pro-consuls and minor princelings once took the road to ancient Rome. So, if you missed it, you’re forgiven. In the British media, however, this particular three-day meet-and-greet was followed as if it were the second coming. British officials were spinning like nuclear centrifuges to stress the importance of this latest manifestation of the “special relationship” and of the depth and warmth of the personal ties between “Barack” and “David.”

“Second coming”? Ugh. Ew. Ick.

Source

Obama does engender some strong reactions, but those reactions are not all fawning and fainting. “New Mexico town elects mayor who called Obama ‘manifestation of evil’ the New Mexico Politics magazine reports. The newly elected mayor, David Lansford, handily beat his opponent with 63 percent of the vote, by the way. What does that tell you. Even though the newly elected mayor participated in ATLAH’s mock treason trial of President Barack Obama and wrote articles for its online publication, calling Obama an illegitimate president under the Constitution and “the carnal manifestation of evil,” claiming Obama’s election was part of a CIA conspiracy, he handily won. Apparently not everyone is bamboozled by Obama’s fainting aura.

By the way, ATLAH is ‘ATLAH World Missionary Church’ on 123rd Street in New York City and is pastored by James David Manning.

I’d like to get back to the ‘carnal manifestation of evil’ comment. Is Mayor Lansford totally crazy to say such a thing? I’d venture to say that all liberals and a good many conservatives would say he is. I would say let’s look at the bible. Is there precedent for evil to manifest into this realm? Yes.

First, we read that there is an evil demon-being behind the Prince of Tyre (Ezekiel 28) and the Prince of Persia (Daniel 10:13). They are the demonic entities behind the earthly thrones assigned to those areas and it is understood that they are fallen angels oppressing and directing those earthly leaders so as to thwart the plans of God. In the case of Persia, the incident is recorded in Dan 10 where the angel assigned to carry a message to Daniel was prevented from doing so for 21 days, until the angel Michael was dispatched to go help break the standoff.

But just as fallen angels oppress and harass earthly leaders, so good angels help and aid earthly leaders. At least, for sure we know of one who is assigned to the people Israel, the angel Michael (Daniel 12:1).

The angel who was sent to Daniel was a carnal manifestation of good, sent by God to physically appear and deliver news in person. We can also assume that the evil angels can do the same, physically manifest and appear to us on earth to deliver news in person. We know this not only from the verses above but also Genesis 6:2,4 when the evil angels saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and took all that they chose for wives and they had children by them. In that recorded incident, evil manifested on earth in the flesh for long periods of time and interacted in normal human ways, such as talking, eating, walking, speaking; and apparently also interacted in intimate ways with people too.

As we see above, obviously opinions are divided as to whether Obama is good or evil. But there is no doubt that he is something different, in that he is able to cause physiological reactions in people who are predisposed to him to the extent that they faint (or get tingles up their leg). My personal opinion is that he IS a carnal manifestation of evil. I agree with Mayor David Lansford.

Jesus told us that the time right before His second coming would include days like they were in Noah’s time. (Mt 24:37). Those days were so evil God was grieved He had made humanity (Genesis 6:5) because every intention of their hearts was evil all the time. In Matthew 24 Jesus was referring to the time when the Restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit will have been lifted, (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7), the Tribulation period after the rapture. We can see the slow lifting of His hand now, with evil rising so quickly it defies the senses.

What am I trying to say here? We know from scriptures that evil does manifest, we know from scriptures that the time of the end will be especially rife with all kinds of evil, false signs, false apostles masquerading as ministers of righteousness, and that demonic evil thrives behind some thrones. Is Obama one of those? Quite probably. As the election season becomes more frenzied the question will no doubt come up again, as it did in 2008. However, we know this from Peter’s discourse about false teachers and their destruction:

“if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.” (2 Peter 2:9-12).

Jude says “In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.” (Jude 1:8-10).

If Michael, who knows better than any angel the evil that his former compatriot satan has wrought against the holy God, it is he. Yet even Michael dares not slander the evil ones. We shouldn’t either. Jesus will rescue the Godly from trials and hold the unrighteous for punishment.

There is also a curious statement by Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:3, with Paul reminding the Corinthians “don’t you know that we will judge angels?” The context before and after does not say whether we will judge the good ones, the bad ones, or all of them, or if it simply means we will rule over them, but in any case the simplest interpretation is that we will be exalted over angels in some way, they being a higher class of created being than us at present. This means that we do not have to slander celestial beings now (if Obama is one) or slander human beings now (if Obama is one) because it will all be taken care of at the time of the end. Do not worry about the 2012 election. We just have to rely on God, obey Him, persevere, and wait for justice. It will come.

end of days, prophecy

Are things spinning out of control? (Answer: No)

Posted on March 16, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

If you read the news today it seems like everything is out of control. Politics is out of control. I mean, really:

Cost of living is out of control. Gas prices are out of control. Tell me about that last one. The price of regular gas went up ten cents last week, and two cents just today. $3.69 on the way into work, $3.71 on the way home from work. I don’t get paid for two more weeks. I wonder what the price will be then. The weather is out of control, there’s 80 degrees in Maine and twisters in Michigan and 250,000 tons of snow in Anchorage. The Middle East is out of control, with hundreds of rockets falling in Israel and at one point a million Israelis huddling in shelters. Iran is threatening the destruction of the US. You heard right, they’re not just the usual threats against Israel, but Iran issued a direct threat to destroy the US and not to rest until they have accomplished that. The economic situation is out of control. 80% of Americans say they are not better off than they were 4 years ago. UK unemployment is up more that they even figured for February.

A report is out that antibiotic overuse is so prevalent a scratched knee could be deadly. That last one reminded me of a documentary I’d seen recently in which a global epidemic occurred and within two weeks civilization collapsed. In the documentary, which was interspersed with live drama to illustrate the effects of the situations the various authorities were describing, the father, who had led his family out of LA and managed to survive gangs, disarray, hunger, thirst, loss of possessions, and all sorts of animal and human dangers, died from a scratch on his hand.

I think I have mentioned every sphere in which we live; food, transportation, government, war, medicine, peace, etc. Every sphere of our lives are unraveling, undergoing pressure, or otherwise getting worse. It sure feels like things are spinning out of control.

They’re not.

I was musing on God’s orderliness. Time and time again in the bible he shows us just how much He is in control. Everything happens in His schedule, in His timetable, in His timing, for His reasons. Nothing escapes His notice. Nothing happens unless He causes it, allows it, or oversees it and then brings it all to the Good for those who love Him.

You have to read the bible a lot to get this broad of an overview. I can put in bible verse after bible verse, but it wouldn’t broaden the scope enough to illustrate what I’m saying. The best thing to do is read Matthew 1-3. I’ll synopsize here.

For millennia, the People knew that there would come a Messiah to redeem them and bring them to sinless glory. They waited and they waited and they waited. It seemed like a long time was passing. And a long time was passing. But in God’s orderliness, this is how time was passing:

“So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.” (Matthew 1:17).

Orderly. Precise. Jesus arrived at the fourteenth generation of the fourteenth generation of the fourteenth generation, just as planned.

When the Magi arrived, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. (Mt 2:3). So Herod called the priests and teachers and asked about this birth and where it was supposed to take place. They replied:

So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’” (Matthew 2:5-6)

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, just as He planned. Orderly.

Herod was much troubled and he decided to kill the boy Jesus, this coming King he had heard of, by killing all the tots under the age of two. But God sent an angel to Joseph, advising him to flee to Egypt. And so another prophecy was fulfilled.

“When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” (Matthew 3:14-15)

Herod’s massacre then happened, and so the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled–

“A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more.” (Matthew 3:18).

Peter Paul Rubens Massacre of the Innocents

God sent the People their first prophet in 400 years, a man to announce the coming kingdom and to call for repentance: John the Baptist. This was to fulfill he “who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘ Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’” (Matthew 3:3).

Orderly. He was spoken of to come, and he came.

If you take the broad view you see that all had happened just as it should. You see that it is all happening now just as it should. Though daily events seem out of control, over the long term they are actually very orderly.

As an example, you look at the Reubens painting it looks like chaos. The mothers of the slain babies sure didn’t feel like life was orderly- it felt like it was spinning out of control. As the angel shook Joseph’s shoulder and told him to flee to Egypt, it sure must have felt like things were spinning out of control. You know how you feel when you get a 2 am phone call! It is scary at best and chaotic at worst, especially if the call brings bad news, especially if you have to run out to the police station or to the hospital.

I understand how the people of Jesus’ day would be confused, the disparate verses calling for a Bethlehem-born, lamenting Rachel, out of Egypt, Nazarene presaged by a Nazrite eating locusts and honey didn’t seem to fit together. But then, just as suddenly, they did. His prophecy is perfect and perfectly orderly.

If you feel like life is getting out of control, I understand. There’s high crime, wantonness, bloated lusts. But they too are prophesied:

“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:3b-8).

All these things must come to pass. And then He will call for us, and suddenly everything we have been told for thousands of years in the twinkling of an eye will become past history.

God has everything in control. If you are saved by His grace, your soul is secure. Everything is progressing just as it should be. Nothing is out of control.

It is happening in an orderly way, precisely, and perfectly. And no matter what happens in my life, no matter how low my bank account gets, or how many rumors of reduction in force swirl past my ears, no matter how many times I have to hide in the tub with a pillow over my head from tornadoes, no matter how empty my refrigerator gets, I know He has everything in control. That knowledge is the securest place I could possibly be, and I wouldn’t trade it. I am grateful for His grace, His perfection, His plan, His love for keeping me sheltered in this wonderful knowledge.

If you would like to partake of the sweetness of His security, knowing everything is perfect in the world according to His plan, then repent of your sins. Appeal to Jesus as your savior from the wrath of God, and fling yourself on Him in sorrow for your crimes against Him. He will forgive you. And then I would be blessed to say to you, “Welcome to the family of God.”

rapture, sky booms, sounds of the apocalypse

Strange boom heard in GA, spiritual warfare ramping up?

Posted on March 15, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

There has been a spate of strange sky noises lately, reported from all around the world. I reported on some of them last year, a roundup is here.

People have been asking me if I am going to address the current spate of sky rumbles/sky quakes/ mysterious booms as they are variously known. I don’t have much to say about them, and I can’t really relate them to the bible because the bible does not specifically address them as a warning sign. However, they may indicate something related to the end times.

The noises are usually a low pitched hum that veritably drives the residents crazy, or a boom from the sky that people liken to a sonic boom. Sometimes they say it sounds like a clanking or a chain in the sky. In several incidents, they were hoaxes. When they occur for real, as in the case where it was so loud it caused car alarms to go off, the authorities receive dozens to hundreds of phone calls asking if there had been an earthquake. In most cases, the boom is not related to a military activity nor aeronautic exercise, not to a quake, and not to drilling or explosives. These things are checked out and the usual explanation is usually absent, leaving residents to wonder what is the cause of the noise. That’s why they are termed mysterious. Someone dubbed them “Sounds of the Apocalypse” and I think that is the most apt thing about these noises.

At first, the sounds were being recorded and put up by citizens on Youtube. In those cases I think some were hoaxes. Then semi-credible news agencies started reporting on them, such as this one from UK Daily Mail-

“What’s causing the mysterious sounds coming from the sky that are so loud they set off car alarms?“

After this more credible news outlets reported on them, albeit local ones:

Still no explanation for mysterious booms in Madison County
And still another one heard over several states and accompanied by a fireball

A mysterious boom was heard today near Savannah GA.

Something shakes Southeast Georgia
Reports of loud boom, earth shaking reports come from 5 counties
It wasn’t an earthquake that rattled windows and store shelves early, but residents across Southeast Georgia heard and felt something big Thursday morning. “My wife and I, we heard this loud noise — this booming noise,” said Officer Todd Rhodes of the Brunswick Police Department. “It was a noise that literally shook our home.” When Rhodes got to work, he learned his 911 center was swamped with calls of people with similar reports. “Everyone was very concerned,” Rhodes said. “There was some panic there because you know when you hear that noise as far-reaching as it was, and not only hearing it but feeling it, you want to know, ‘What is this?'”

GEMA, Air Force confirm sonic boom heard
“Several people called WTOC Thursday morning saying they heard a loud boom and some even felt their house shake around 8:30 a.m. Ray Parker, the Emergency Management Director in McIntosh County, ruled out an earthquake. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the Air Force both confirm that what people heard was a sonic boom. Some Air Force planes were doing training exercises off the Georgia coast Thursday morning, when one may have gotten too close to land.”

Maybe.

There is no doubt that strange booms are emanating from the sky. Enough people have heard them to make no doubt they really are happening. When hundreds of calls flood into a 911 call center, when agencies like GA Emergency Management Agency and Seismology offices and Police Authorities officials confirm it, you know they are happening. But what are they? Why are they being heard now?

I think of the veil, the veneer between us and the powers, principalities and dominions (Eph 1:21, Col 1:16; Eph 6:12) and I wonder, how thin is it? Elisha prayed to God for Him to give Elisha’s servant a glimpse of the other side, and the servant’s eyes were opened and he saw the multitudes of angels right there hovering and ready to do battle. (2 Kings 6:17). Are the two sides so close together that an occasional co-mingling occurs? Sounds leak from one to the other? I don’t know of course, but I wonder about these things.

There is an angel big and strong enough to stand on the sun and loud enough to call to all the birds flying in the air inside out atmosphere:

“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God,” (Revelation 19:17).

There are angels big and strong enough to stand at the 4 compass points and hold back the wind:

“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.” (Revelation 7:1).

Angels are strong and big. The fallen angels are strong and big too. They were once the good angels who served God after all, the same as the ones written about above.

Personally I believe the booms are either manifestations of spiritual warfare we happen to hear on this side of the veil, or the preparations God is making for imminent Tribulation judgments. Sort of like the bumps and shudders throughout a house when furniture is being moved around. Nothing that is happening on that side of the veil is happening accidentally or chaotically, of course, but as evil rises I picture the throes and feverish pitch of good angels fighting fallen angels, and the preparations for the climactic end season of man’s time on earth.

This means that if you are not saved that you need to be, NOW. It means that if you have read this far,that the Spirit is working in you toward repentance, and all you need to do is realize that your sins are crimes against a Just and Holy God, who sent His Son to die to pay for the penalty required to satisfy God’s wrath over those crimes.

Jesus said of Himself,

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:14-16)

You are welcome to the flock. The sheepfold is big enough for you. Your loving Shepherd wants to take care of you, longs to, in fact. He promises to deliver Jacob, His people:

“I will surely gather all of you, Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. (Micah 2:12)

He promises to deliver His Church people:

“Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:3-7)

If you do need to repent, do so soon, please. Jesus is coming. He is a fabulous Savior, the manifestation of Love itself. Be in Him, it is the safest and warmest and best place to be in the entire universe. Blessings to you all.

end time, leonard ravenhill, prophets

Send us prophets!

Posted on March 14, 2012 by elizabethprata

Picture of a Prophet
By Leonard Ravenhill
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.

Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, “No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his “brand name.”

The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him “Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!

The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.”

The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally “otherworldly.”
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a “seer” who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a “thus saith
the Lord.”
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in “splendid isolation.”
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is “repent, be reconciled to God or else…!”
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few “make the grade” in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint
by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of
Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in
the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.

Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!

I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the “seven years of plenty” are over for us. The “seven years of famine” are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).

Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years. Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. “Come-outers” have “come out” and settled, too, without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?

GOD’S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history.

There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.

Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and
stagnant “churchianity.”
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, “This ONE thing I do.”
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself- righteous,
nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move
men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has
received the order of the day.
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the
clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision
no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the
wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where
enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.

God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!

israel, UNESCO

UNESCO, the Palestinians and Israel’s holy sites

Posted on March 13, 2012 by elizabethprata

Yesterday I’d posted a story titled “Is Israel abandoning the Mount of Olives?” I used that title because that is the actual title of the opinion piece as it appeared a few days ago in Israel National News. In the article the author bemoaned the fact that the Mount of Olives cemetery “suffers from desecration of graves and violence against visitors, including stones thrown at mourners and family members.” The author also went on to explain that the UN heritage organization, UNESCO, consistently denies or restricts status and access to Jewish Holy Sites, such as Jericho Synagogue, the Mugrabi Bridge, Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb.

A reader posted a question, a good one: “I wonder why Israel is giving up some of these sites??? Why did they give David’s tomb to the Catholics?” This post is the answer. First, a look at why the sites are slipping out of Israel’s hands. It revolves around UNESCO, an organization of the UN.

UNESCO is an organization of the UN “best known for designating world heritage sites, [and also] is a major global development agency whose missions include promoting literacy, science, clean water and education, including sex education and promoting equal treatment for girls and young women.”

Here is an example of how the UN restricts status and steals Jewish holy sites:

2010: UNESCO steals Holy Site, gives it to Palestinians
“The board of UNESCO (the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has decided that Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs — both of which are ancient Jewish holy places — should be removed from Israel’s list of national sites. And that’s not all. According to UNESCO, Rachel’s Tomb isn’t Jewish after all, despite millenia of history. Its name should accordingly be changed to the Bilal ibn Rabah mosque — a demand the Palestinians manufactured, in the teeth of all historical evidence, in 1996.”

The process is that members of UNESCO list an inventory of their heritage and holy sites each year. Members produce an inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination. Once nominated and accepted by vote, the site gets protected status and financial aid. Non-members cannot nominate any sites, as this next story reports–

May 2011: UNESCO rejects Palestinian nominations
Unesco is considering adding 11 Middle East sites in June for inclusion on its World Heritage List, but the Palestinian nomination will not be among them. The Palestinian proposal of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was rejected for consideration. “The World Heritage Committee will not be able to consider the nomination until, if and when Palestine becomes a state party to the [World Heritage] Convention,” said Louise Haxthausen, the head of Unesco’s office in Ramallah. Only countries recognised by the United Nations as sovereign states and members of the world body can make nominations to Unesco.”

The Palestinians went “HMMMMMM”

On October 31, 2011, the Palestinian Authority, which had applied for membership into UNESCO organization, was voted in.

October 2011: UN accepts Palestinian Authority as members of UNESCO
“Palestine became the 195th full member of Unesco on Monday…Cheers filled the hall at Unesco’s headquarters here after the vote, with one delegate shouting, “Long live Palestine!” in French.”

It didn’t take long for the Palestinians to get in on the current round of nominations. As a matter of fact, two weeks before the UNESCO membership vote at the UN on Oct 31, this story appeared:

“Palestinians to push heritage status at UNESCO for birthplace of Jesus“
“The Palestinians will seek World Heritage status for the birthplace of Jesus once the U.N. cultural agency admits them as a full member, and will then nominate other sites on Israeli-occupied land for the same standing, an official said. … He said that after gaining full UNESCO membership, the Palestinians will revive their bid to secure World Heritage status for Bethlehem and its Church of the Nativity, revered as the birthplace of Jesus. The nomination was rejected this year because the Palestinians were not a full UNESCO member.”

‘Israeli-occupied’ land… [snort]. Well the PA did what the article said they planned to do. After the three month waiting period and the moment their membership became active, the PA came out with their list of nominations and sure enough, the birthplace of Jesus was on their list-

March 2012: Palestinians to submit 20 sites for UNESCO listing
“The Palestinians are poised to submit the names of 20 sites in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza for addition to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites, an official said on Thursday. Palestine was accepted as a full member state of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation last year, over objections from Israel and the United States, and despite not having full United Nations membership. But its tenure as a full UNESCO member came into force on Thursday, and diplomats now plan to move quickly to register Palestinian sites. “From today we are a full party as a state so now we can start all the things that states can do within the rules of the convention, one of them is that we can submit our list to the World Heritage committee,” he said. Until now, the Palestinians could not formally submit any sites in the Palestinian territories for inclusion in the list. The tentative list that will be submitted is the first step in the process of obtaining World Heritage status for the sites, and is intended as an inventory of the locations a member wishes to register, UNESCO says. The list includes sites ranging from Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, to Hebron’s walled Old City in the southern West Bank.”

So that is how these sites are slipping from Israel’s hands. Now to the second question, why did the Israelis give the Vatican sovereignty over David’s tomb?

Let’s go back a few months ago, to December 2011:

“The Vatican’s former foreign minister asked to place some Israeli holy places under Vatican authority, alluding to the Cenacle on Mount Zion and the garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The first site also houses what is referred to as King David’s tomb.”

The Cenacle is the Upper Room where authorities say the Last Supper took place. The article continues:

“The Israeli government and the Vatican are deadlocked in discussions over the status of the religious sites. Vatican officials are now reiterating their demand for control over the religious sites in the ancient and holy city founded by King David as the capital of ancient Israel and now the capital of the reestablished Jewish state. Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, declared that Israel might consider giving the Vatican “a greater role” in operating the sites. In the last weeks, the Roman Catholic Church’s authorities increased their political initiatives for Catholic control over some sites in Jerusalem.’

The problem, they allege, is here encapsulated in the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church Fouad Twal’s speech, in which he denounced “the Israeli right wing invading more and more of Jerusalem and trying to transform it into an only Hebrew-Jewish city, excluding the other faiths”.

Sigh.

The truth is that everyone wants a piece of Israel, not just the Palestinians and not just the United Nations, not just Iran and Hamas and Hezbollah, but the Catholics too. They are all like snarling wolves fighting over an increasingly carved up Israel. So that is the story of how they are striking at the heart of Israel, not just through rockets lobbed at Israel towns and cities (summary of rocket events here), not just through the Israel-hating UN, but at a constant and subtle chipping away at Israel through its heart and holy sites.

Job 14:19a, “water wears away stones”… and feet wears away stones too.

Canterbury Cathedral: Stairs to the south ambulatory, worn down by pilgrim feet and knees.

The truth is, even stone gets worn and weary, and constant pressure and treading on it wears it away. With pressure on all sides, I can’t imagine how the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli people (a million of them recently sheltering in underground bunkers due to rocket barrages) withstand the pressure. But the pressure will get more intense as the jackals come for Israel.

The good news is that the promise of God to the People is that their land is actually Israel, Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and half of Egypt. They will dwell there someday, during the Millennium.

I believe that the Tribulation events will obliterate most of Jerusalem and that the Millennial Kingdom will usher in a time where the land and the buildings will be new and different, but still, wouldn’t it be something if one of the Old Testament Patriarchs said, “Hey, let’s take a walk to the Mount of Olives Tombs to see where I used to be buried!”

Greater Israel map Source

Praise God His promises are true! I long for the day when the world will love Israel because they love God and know that it is HIS land and HIS people. Israel must be punished prior to that glorious time, though, and meanwhile, now and then, we pray. We pray the Israelites of today will have the strength to bear what is coming, and we pray in praises to God that He maintains a remnant

“It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea.” (Isaiah 11:11)

Blessed are the words, ‘It shall come to pass.’

israel, mount of olives

Is Israel abandoning the Mount of Olives?

Posted on March 12, 2012 by elizabethprata

From Israel National News Wednesday March 7:

Is Israel abandoning the Mount of Olives?
“The Mount of Olives is a real Israeli national heritage site, going back thousands of years. The situation there now is intolerable. Under pressure from Unesco, which is trying to “de-Judaize” and “Islamicize” the most holy Jewish sites, the State of Israel seems to be giving up its sovereignty on graves and sacred sites.The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem— the most important Jewish holy sites — have been just omitted from their list of Israel’s national heritage sites. A few days ago, the Palestinian Rehabilitation Committee raised the Unesco flag next to the Palestinian flag in front of Hevron’s Tomb and in all the Unesco official documents, Hevron’s Tomb is already labelled as “a Palestinian site”.

The Temple wall can be seen at the right, with the road leading down to the cemetery and then the cemetery below. Source Wikipedia

“After Unesco condemned the renovation of the Mughrabi Bridge that links the Western Wall to the Temple Mount, Israel’s government closed the structure. Under the Islamic Waqf’s intimidation, Israeli authorities are banning Jews from praying on the Mount and are not even allowed to carry any holy articles with them. Joseph’s Tomb near Nablus, which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, can be reached by Jewish worshippers only like thieves in the night, escorted by the IDF and only once in a month. But according to the Oslo Accords, the tomb, where Unesco just financed an Arab archaeological park, should have been under Israel’s control. Palestinian policemen remain armed at the tomb, despite the killing of a Jewish pilgrim last year. Today no Jew is permitted to set foot without military escort in the Shalom al Yisrael synagogue of the “city of palms”, Jericho. Jews were denied access to it from 1948 until 1967, when Israel liberated the area and Jews returned to the site.”

“According to Annex II of the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994, “Religious affairs in the ‘Shalom Al Israel’ synagogue in Jericho shall be under the auspices of the Israeli authorities”. But in fact, Israeli authorities gave up the site. A few weeks ago, Israel gave the Vatican sovereignty over David’s tomb, where some believe Jewish kings of Judea are buried. But the most unknown story is about the Mount of Olives cemetery, which has just been discussed at an emergency hearing of the Knesset.”

So let’s summarize,

Cave of the Patriarchs- Arab
Rachel’s Tomb – Arab
Temple Mount – Arab
Joseph’s Tomb – restricted
Jericho synagogue – Arab
David’s Tomb – Catholic
Mt. Olive cemetery – abandoned

The Mount of Olives cemetery is where this happened at the Resurrection: “The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:52-53).

The writer of the Israel National News opinion piece wrote at length of the deplorable conditions at the cemetery and of the tombs. He ended with this: “We’re not talking about the Gaza Strip. We’re talking about the most holy Jewish cemetery, overlooking the Temple Mount. Is that area to become “Judenrein” like Joseph’s Tomb? If Israel is abdicating the Mount of Olives, then she is abdicating Jerusalem.”

Here is what will happen: Jesus will descend from heaven and land on the Mount of Olives. He will not need a military escort! He will not need to get paperwork or ask permission! He will RECLAIM WHAT IS HIS!!

“In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!” (Zechariah 14:4-5).