Second-Greatest Prophetic Signal – Terry James - https://terryjamesprophecyline.com/2022/08/15/second-greatest-prophetic-signal/ Most every Bible prophecy student is fairly certain that the number-one signal of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline is centered within the modern nation of Israel. There can be no ending to this great, eternal drama if God’s chosen nation isn’t a major actor within the scenes to unfold as the play reaches its climax. The proof of God being the play’s Author is His foreknowledge. He has said that Israel would be a nation again after its final diaspora (dispersion). As a matter of fact, His Word foretold that it would be reborn in a single day–which happened May 14, 1948. God has put in writing that His people, the Jews, will yet have to go through the most terrible times of history. He laid it all out through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30:7), Matthew the apostle (Matthew 24: 21), and John the Revelator (the book of Revelation from chapter 4 to the end.) He further said Israel would be the greatest of all nations, ultimately. The Millennial Kingdom will have His chosen nation as its apex nation, ruled over by the resurrected King David under the kingship of the Lord of all lords and King of all kings–Jesus Christ—for one thousand years. So, to the true prophecy student, there is no doubt. Israel is the number-one signal of where things stand when the Tribulation closes in and the triumphant return of Jesus Christ nears. Now, there are differing opinions on what other signals might be next in line beneath Israel. Here are some of the signals I think we will next be seeing: - Increase in wars and rumors of wars
- Nations in alignment, as given in God’s Word—i.e., the Gog-Magog nations (Russia, Iran, Turkey, etc.)
- Developments in the geopolitical world, such as the ten-kings developments found in Daniel, Luke, and other places; the EU as a reviving Roman Empire; and Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image and the ten toes of iron mixed with miry clay
- Religious apostasy, with the ecumenical movements, an apostate pope, and strange winds of doctrines that continue to assault true Christianity
- Some are prone to count as signs some geophysical events such as storms, and other strange-weather events, and earthquake activity. I don’t discount these, but don’t see them as major signs at this point.
- The increase in Antichrist spirit evil with regard to occultic activities such as directing humanity toward Mother Earth worship (climate-change madness) and conjuring through demonic rituals, etc., as the cultures and societies of the world descend toward the abyss
- And, along this line, the Antichrist spirit and all wickedness attendant to it (In fact, I’ve about concluded this might be the number-two signal, right beneath Israel.) Within this satanic sin-infection of most all of humanity at this late hour of the age, I believe we can spotlight the manifestation of a particular evil. The specific evil that jumps out from the slide under God’s microscope–the Holy Bible—can be discerned, I believe, through reports like the following:
Eleven people have appeared in court accused of taking part in a child sex ring which also allegedly involves witchcraft, serious violence and neglect. The sex ring mainly centres around two young girls and a boy between 2010 and 2020, all in Glasgow, a court heard. According to prosecutors, the eleven suspects are said to have got the boy and the older girl to take part in ‘seances (and) use a Ouija board…to call on spirits and demons’ as part of the sex ring. They also allegedly got the children involved in ‘witchcraft’ leading them to believe that they themselves had ‘metamorphosed into animals’. The group, of seven men and four women, are also believed to have worn cloaks and devil horns as well as making the young boy stab a [indecipherable] to death. It is also claimed the children were forced to take part in satanic ‘seances’ and made to kill animals – including dogs – as part of the ring that is thought to have spanned across a decade. The accusations claim that the three young children were raped at different times while some of the group did ‘clap, cheer and verbally encourage’ and film a ten-year-old girl being sexually assaulted. (“Eleven people in court charged with child sex abuse ring allegedly involving ‘witchcraft’,” Daily Mail Online, Rapture Ready News, August 5, 2022) As history will attest, most every civilization that has been on earth has perpetrated the worse kind of perverseness and wickedness against children in its final throes of its existence. Even in the case of Israel, we know they made their little ones to pass through the white-hot hands of the idol Moloch. The Greek and Roman Empires each had the grossest forms of pedophilia, even within the top levels of government, in days leading up to their demise. Today, the murder of millions of babies in their mothers’ wombs makes our time like those days when the idol-god Moloch was used to burn children alive. All of the other things mentioned above–the signals we have discussed in this forum over the years—now seem to have at this advanced date of the age coalesced. The luciferically-spawned wickedness has brought the world to the point of totally depraved activity against children. Like in the days of Noah, the minds of men are almost always on evil continually. There seems nothing left to be done by Heaven’s governance than to institute God’s judgment and wrath. So I believe a case can be made that this worldwide movement to inflict Satan’s murderous intentions upon the most helpless among humankind–the children—constitutes the second greatest signal of how near is the Tribulation and God’s Wrath. That means the Rapture of the Church is even nearer than that seven years of hell on earth. Here is how to escape the judgment and wrath that is coming, perhaps very soon. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
As Our Culture Wages War Against God, Christians Find Themselves At The Front Lines Of An Ancient Worldview Battle - By Answers In Genesis - https://harbingersdaily.com/as-our-culture-wages-war-against-god-christians-find-themselves-at-the-front-lines-of-an-ancient-worldview-battle/ When culture and Scripture disagree, who do we side with? Different answers to that question have played out across the centuries in Rome and what this history means for Christians today. Behind the stone walls which stretched skyward from the pavement where I stood, countless life stories had ended. Those walls had once resounded with the roar of crowds, the clash of steel, and the shouts of gladiators. But the battles fought in Rome’s Colosseum were only shadows of the real warfare in this city. The greater conflict lay in an age-old battle of worldviews, with humans waging a futile—and disastrous—war against their Creator’s infallible Word. With its significance for the early church, Reformation, and Renaissance, Rome offers a central vantage point from which to understand the worldview battle still raging in Western culture—a battle which extends to the Neo-Marxist ideas storming society today. To see how Rome’s past offers practical reminders for Christ followers today, let’s take a quick tour through the Western worldview battle in Rome. Resistance: Early Church vs. Pagan Culture Follow the flocks of tourists through Rome’s labyrinthine streets, and you’ll find a mammoth monument to paganism: the Pantheon. Given that pan means “all” and theos refers to divinity, you might guess the Pantheon once housed a smorgasbord of idols—and you’d be right. From the “god of cattle worms” to the “goddess of grain mildew,” the Romans worshipped a pantheon of mythic deities. But no idols—not even those hewn from the toughest stone—can provide a solid worldview foundation on which to build a culture. As the famous Christian scholar Francis Shaeffer pointed out, Like the Greeks, the Romans had no infinite god. This being so, they had no sufficient reference point intellectually; that is, they did not have anything big enough or permanent enough to which to relate either their thinking or their living. Consequently, their value system was not strong enough to bear the strains of life, either individual or political. All their gods put together could not give them a sufficient base for life, morals, values, and final decisions. As a result, Rome increasingly turned to the worship of more animate idols: emperors. A period called the Great Persecution began as one such emperor, Diocletian, decreed edicts which placed increasing pressure on Christians. First, Diocletian dismissed soldiers and palace officials who refused to sacrifice to Roman deities. Next, he ordered the removal of Christian texts and church buildings, prohibited Christians from holding services, and restricted Christians’ legal rights. He then issued an edict that spelled imprisonment for clergy members, adding a subsequent edict which granted clergy freedom if they offered Roman sacrifices. Meanwhile, Diocletian’s government found ways to scapegoat Christians for local crises, whether “failed sacrifices” or palace fires. Finally, in AD 304, a universal decree gave Christians an ultimatum: sacrifice or endure punishments, including torture, imprisonment, and death. Thousands of believers refused to compromise with the Roman government’s unbiblical demands—and faced horrific deaths as a result. But remember, the Christians could have avoided these fates. All they had to do was go along with their culture, blending a Roman worldview with Christianity by adding the worship of local deities to their worship of Jesus. However, that would have meant following man’s word (or human-made religion) as the authority above God’s Word, which says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Where culture and Scripture disagreed, many believers in Rome followed God’s Word on pain of death. Reformation: The Need for a Return to God’s Word After Diocletian and his co-emperor resigned, one of the new emperors, Constantine, issued the Edict of Milan in AD 313, granting religious freedom.7 The Christianization of Rome soon began, with the church remaining central to much of Europe’s civil and political life long after the decline of the Roman Empire. But as the centuries unfolded, three related veins of compromise corroded the worldview foundation beneath Western culture’s Christianized veneer: 1. Compromise on biblical authority Instead of accepting God’s Word as their authority for truth, many Christians began viewing human-made teachings and church traditions from outside the Bible as though equal to Scripture. (Part of this problem stemmed from the fact that most Christians could not access God’s Word for themselves—a limitation which Western Christians do not share today, thanks largely to the courage of men, including John Wycliffe and William Tyndale, who translated Scripture in opposition to man’s decrees.) 2. Compromise on biblical doctrine Tolerating the syncretism of man’s word with God’s Word opened the door for Christians to import more and more unbiblical teachings into their beliefs. For instance, people increasingly viewed salvation as a reward for human efforts rather than accepting the Bible’s revelation that salvation is God’s gift of grace made possible through Jesus alone (Ephesians 2:8–9). 3. Compromise with pagan philosophy Along the way, many mainstream believers began incorporating secular teachings into their Christianity. For instance, the prominent theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) emphasized the pagan Greek philosopher Aristotle to the point that Aristotle’s teachings became treated as official church doctrine.
Realizing that Western culture’s mainstream religion had drifted alarmingly far from God’s Word, Reformers, including Martin Luther (1483–1546), urged the church to return to its foundation of biblical authority. Renaissance: Culture Aligns Itself to Man’s Word In the years between Aquinas and Luther, Western culture’s renewed emphasis on pagan Greece and Rome gave way to a full-blown revival of classical philosophy—a shift known as the Renaissance, named after the French term for “rebirth.” Following the teachings of Aristotle, Renaissance thinkers believed that humans could construct their own meaningful view of reality by reasoning about the pieces of the world they could perceive around them rather than by beginning with God as the objective authority for truth and meaning. To glimpse a famous example of this thinking in sixteenth-century Rome, let’s head to the nearby Vatican Museum. Shuffle your way through the crowds streaming through the museum’s gilded corridors, and you’ll (eventually) wind up in the Sistine Chapel, famed for its paintings by Renaissance artist Michelangelo (1475–1564). One scene shows how Michelangelo envisioned the creation of man, with God and Adam nearly touching. For centuries, people have viewed this painting as symbolizing how humans are created in the image of God, whose Word is our authority for truth. But more recently, scholars have suggested Michelangelo’s depictions of God may contain or exist inside illustrations of the human brain. Was Michelangelo implying that “people created God,” meaning that human thoughts and feelings are the authority for truth? Whether or not this interpretation of Michelangelo’s artwork is correct, such humanistic thinking gained rapid traction during the Renaissance, reflecting Satan’s original lies, “Did God actually say . . .?” and “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:1–5). To believe these lies and make ourselves the authority for truth is to leave the ultimate foundation for truth, logic, morality, justice, and human value, which God’s Word supplies. This leads to disastrous consequences and paves the way for later totalitarian regimes, including those influenced by Karl Marx. From Michelangelo to Marx Marx, an atheist, believed that humanity evolved without a Creator and therefore must “create” itself. This process of self-creation, according to Marx, involves laboring toward the development of a atheistic, communistic society that would free humanity to reach its full potential. To make this claim that man is his own creator, Marx first had to discount Genesis—a step which the increasingly popular ideas of millions of years and evolutionary origins seemed to justify. Summarizing these views, Marx stated: The creation of the earth has received a mighty blow from geognosy—i.e., from the science which presents the formation of the earth, the development of the earth, as a process, as a self-generation. . . . But for the socialist man, the entire so-called history of the world is nothing but the creation of man through human labour, nothing but the emergence of nature for man, so he has the visible, irrefutable proof of his birth through himself, of his genesis. We can see traces of Marx’s man-centered religion in Renaissance-era humanism reflected in other works by Michelangelo. For instance, when describing a room which displays some of Michelangelo’s most famous sculptures, Francis Shaeffer noted, Here we see on either side Michelangelo’s statues of men “tearing themselves out of the rock.” These were sculpted between 1519 and 1536. They make a real humanistic statement: Man will make himself great. Man as Man is tearing himself out of the rock. Man by himself will tear himself out of nature and free himself from it. Man will be victorious. From Michelangelo to Marx, we see the recurring, fatal pattern of humans rejecting God’s Word to try making themselves “like God”—a pattern as old as Eden. The Battle Continues In today’s Western society, the cultural descendant of Rome, we see the same pattern unfolding at every turn. We again find ourselves at the front lines of the ancient worldview battle where humans wage a futile war against their Creator. We see this battle in Marx’s call for man to create himself via communism. We see it in the Renaissance times and the centuries of church compromise which led to the need for the Reformation. And we see it among the early believers in Rome, where standing on God’s Word over man’s meant facing horrific deaths. Like these early Christians, we live in a culture that disagrees with God’s Word on many points. We’re told that when culture and Scripture disagree, we can reinterpret Scripture accordingly—even though doing so means following man’s word over God’s. Today, it’s no secret that the pressure to compromise with man’s word is growing ever stronger, due in part to Neo-Marxist movements which label Bible-believing Christians as oppressors who must be overthrown. Surrounded by the roar of crowds, we must join the early Roman believers in resolving to stand on the Word of our Creator, Jesus. We can fix our eyes on him with confidence, knowing he has already won the war. |
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Defense and the Preemptive Shot - By Hal Lindsey - https://www.hallindsey.com/ww-8-14-2022/ A murder suspect runs into an alley. A pursuing police officer slows as he approaches the alley. He raises his gun to the ready as he carefully enters. In the alley, he sees the suspect waiting for him, gun in hand. When the suspect sees the officer, he raises his gun to shoot. The officer has a split second in which to make a decision. What does he do? He shoots. The finer nuances of Star Wars films don’t usually make much of a blip on my radar. But in 1997, hard core fans of the films raised such a ruckus that their cry reverberated almost everywhere. That year, the creator and then-owner of the Star Wars films, George Lucas, produced and released an enhanced, slightly altered version of his original movie. Extreme fans hated one change in particular. Early on, one of the film’s heroes, Han Solo, encounters a bounty hunter named Greedo. The bounty hunter holds a gun on Solo, promises to kill him, and is clearly about to fire when…. What happens next depends on which version you watch. In the 1977 version, Solo fires from a hidden gun before Greedo can shoot. In the 1997 version, Greedo fires at Solo and misses him (despite shooting from pointblank range). Solo then returns fire. George Lucas explained the change by saying, “Good guys shoot in self-defense.” But that raises a basic question. Can firing first be an act of self-defense? The police officer shooting I described earlier shows that firing first can be self-defense. A TV cop might try to “talk the suspect down” even as the man puts him in the crosshairs. But in real life, the officer must fire when he sees the gun moving toward a kill position. The policeman must assume that the man will shoot the millisecond the gun is aimed in his direction. Earlier I asked how the officer should respond in such a situation. I could have asked, “Does the policeman shoot, or does he allow himself to be shot?” Yes, “Good guys shoot in self-defense.” And sometimes, self-defense demands a preemptive shot. Imagine that you are holding a gun on a person with a dagger over your child. At the moment he begins to strike, you shoot. You cannot wait. You cannot say, “Well, the man hasn’t stabbed anyone yet.” You shoot him because he is obviously in the process of killing the child even though the blade has not yet touched that child. All this is especially important right now because of something that recently happened in Israel. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a preemptive attack on a Gaza terror group known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). This terror group is funded to the tune of millions of dollars by the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world — Iran. The terror group rejects the idea of living in peace. They want nothing to do with a two-state solution. They are all-in on the total and complete annihilation of Israel and the Jews. On August 1st, for good cause, Israel arrested one of PIJ’s terrorist leaders. The group immediately accelerated their final preparations for a massive attack on Israel. Evidence of the coming missile attack was overwhelming and incontrovertible. Israel warned them, and when the jihadist group ignored the warnings, Israeli Defense Forces went into action. International law allows preemptive strikes under these circumstances. Also, the IDF has been careful to only strike PIJ military sites — not Hamas, and certainly not civilians. Self-defense sometimes requires a preemptive strike. In the United States, that idea is often referred to as the “Bush Doctrine,” named after the 43rd President. But it was actually a part of US foreign policy decades before he entered office. For a nation, saving the lives of its citizens is not just permissible. It is a moral imperative. |
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Daily Jot: Wormwood and gall - Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com In lamenting over Zion, in Jeremiah 9:13-15, the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them, therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.” This grieving could also reflect today’s America. When the federal government uses policing powers for political purposes, no one in the land of Liberty is safe. And because of this nation’s spiritual condition, it is akin to being fed a diet of wormwood and gall. It is time for all Americans to get right with God. This is the only way people are going to see truth. We are living in a time where evil usurpers of the laws of God are using accusations and sensation in the absence of any fact to undermine what is meant for right and good—the Constitution of the United States established on the premise of inalienable rights given by God the Creator. You see, rights are not granted by government, they are embedded in the precepts of God Almighty and bestowed upon His creation. Governments are supposed to be a terror to evil as described in Romans 13, but when governments are against God, we must respond as did Peter in Acts 5:29 by saying, “We must obey God rather than man.” But how can one obey God if he knows not the word of God? We are at a crossroads in this country. It has fallen to these lows where not even the laws of man—which were based on the foundation of the laws of God–are followed. The words are bent and twisted to justify any evil means. As is written in Isaiah 59:14-15, “Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.” That’s what this government under these ruthless radical leftists have succeeded in doing: Making the righteous a prey. How do you like living in fear of an unjust and all-powerful government that interprets law by the desires of its agenda? Instead of wringing hands and asking what to do, it may be wise to just do what the Holy Spirit puts on the heart. If led by the Holy Spirit, all will act according to their gifts. A nation can be changed, a darkness can be eliminated by the Light. But first, one must hear the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not be heard, neither the will of God be revealed, if the only food being fed by pastors, preachers, priests or teachers is a feel-good, self-improving, self-indulgent, extra-biblical sweet-tasting meal. They have taught weakness, and by doing so, have undermined the vales, ethics and morals of society, and thus, have advocated the evil that advances upon us. But at the end of the day, it is our individual responsibility. Each of us must repent and turn to God, and stand—oh yes, we must now stand otherwise suffer a steady diet of wormwood and gall. |
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Daily Devotion: Breaking the Cycle of Sin - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ —Hebrews 13:5 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/breaking-the-cycle-of-sin-2/ Listen People talk about generational curses, about how there’s a curse on their family and there’s no way to break the curse. They say things like, “It’s too late for me. I’ve made so many mistakes, and I’m in this messed-up family. I know that I’m going to do the same bad things that my mom and dad did, and then my kids are going to do them. There’s no way to break the cycle of sin.” Nonsense. When Jesus died on the cross, all curses—all sins—were broken. And when you put your faith in Christ, you’re free from it. Jesus can change your story. If statistics went their natural direction, I would have been divorced multiple times by now, because my mom was married and divorced seven times. If statistics went their natural direction, I’d probably be a drunk, because my mom was an alcoholic. But God interrupted my story. And He can do the same for you. The Bible says that Samson “didn’t realize the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20 NLT). In the Old Testament, we read of the Spirit of God coming upon someone or speaking to someone. But in Samson’s case, the Lord left him. The good news is that Jesus has promised believers that He will never leave us or forsake us. Ever. God will never leave you, no matter what you have done. God won’t leave you, but you can leave Him. God won’t abandon you, but you can abandon Him. And maybe you’ve done that. Maybe you’ve made the worst decisions . . . and the worst decisions on top of that. Own it. Admit it. Repent. Ask God to help. Call out to Him. The Lord will answer your prayer, and He will change your story. You can come back to Him today. |
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