God is still on the throne. We are watching America burn..with temperatures above normal, wildfires out west, following floods that have destroyed communities, and the threat of renewed large earthquakes.(Strangely, the temps will drop here hours after the end of the Democratic National Convention. I don’t think God is pleased with our politicians…any of them. However, He establishes authorities. We will get the leaders we deserve. I hope that gives you pause…) Got your attention yet? I believe God is still on the throne. That no matter how awful some things seem to us, it is a time of revelation, of every secret being revealed, and in spite of the god of this world, that the Creator of the Universe still rules. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:44-45). The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God. When the sun rises they withdraw, and lie down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work And to his labor until evening. O Lord, how many are Thy works! In wisdom Thou hast made them all; The earth is full of Thy possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, In which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great. There the ships move along, And Leviathan, which Thou hast formed to sport in it. They all wait for Thee, To give them their food in due season. Thou dost give to them, they gather it up; Thou dost open Thy hand, they are satisfied with good. Thou dost hide Thy face, they are dismayed; Thou dost take away their spirit, they expire, And return to their dust. Thou dost send forth Thy Spirit, they are created; And Thou dost renew the face of the ground (Psalm 104:21-30). It is a theme throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New. God still reigns, God has the right to do as he wishes, and yet he chose mercy and compassion towards us. With that in mind, what is going on? Middle Eastern woes have increased dramatically. Every day we hear of new atrocities committed by Isis, that Hamas and Hezbollah are still very much in control, the war in Syria rages, and we are no closer to solutions. We literally have no will to end this. I believe that God is clearing out the middle east before the prophesied wars to come (Psalm 83,or neighboring tribes, and Gog, Ezekiel 38:4) Christians took the brunt of these evil men, but that has been the lot of Christians for 2,000 years. If you believe the Holy Spirit restrains evil, then those that are sealed by the Holy Spirit are always targeted by those who hate God. I believe that those forced out, even though the forces of evil choose to plant their own fighters in the millions fleeing, may have a chance of salvation. Not just physical salvation. Already, stories of Muslims having visitations from Christ are reported regularly. Perhaps what Satan intends for evil, God is using to bring these people into his body (the Body is the church. One body, with Christ as its head.) In the meantime, vigilance against the wolves is always required, despite governmental assurances all over the world that Muslims are not a danger. Thousands dead. If this were any other group, we would lock them up any way we could. Why do western governments continually say Muslims are not a threat? They need cooperation from some of these Islamic countries…and oil. They need immigration of some kind..Europeans( and the Japanese..) are not producing enough children. .Americans are on the same path. As this baby boom generation dies off, there won’t be enough people to work, pay taxes, etc. Not with the huge overrun of debt we have created. They are convinced that appeasement will keep the Middle East from going up in flames. They seem convinced the citizenry of these countries will rise up and attack Muslims as a group. Hasn’t happened, but keeping them in victim status, ignoring crimes and terrorism, is the new normal. Some are convinced that just introducing them to western values will change them. Islam is religion, rule of law, all of it, in a package; we just cannot compete with a worldview we don’t understand. And in our liberal feel good, we seem unable to properly explain laws custom and language to Muslim immigrants. We don’t bother. Creating an underclass never works. The attempts to offer up Israel, and specifically Jerusalem as a sacrificial lamb will continue. On the face of it, so ridiculous. Israel is tiny. It is of no importance. The Palestinians not capable of governing themselves at present. This is a sad fact. Arafat robbed them blind, and later leaders have continued the same self serving policies.. And yet, destroying the Jewish presence in Israel is constantly on the mind, or least is a political theme, in most of the Muslim world. The answer, of course, is that Satan hates a remnant of God’s people living in their homeland. He would love to kill them all and be done..no return of the messiah, no presence of God to interfere… So I suspect part of his goals with Islamic terrorism is to scare Jews around the world into Aliyah…going home. Once the majority is there, he can have his wish. (He is the father of lies, which means he cheats. He knows prophecy better than us, but still figures he can change the ending.) And yet, even if satanically driven, it is helping to fulfill prophecy… Amos 9:13-15 13"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. 14"Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. 15"I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them," Says the LORD your God.… Our own country has already been diminished so much as to be useless in fighting evil. Those who predict great times of trouble…it’s here. It’s been here for quite a while. Now we see the murderous spirits unleashed, as our people die in domestic arguments, crimes, attacks on police officers, Islamic attacks… and we watch our government waffle and eat up our energy and time with identity politics. We are done. We no longer support Israel in any meaningful way. Most Jews here are, frankly, apostate, and not willing to make Aliyah. They are comfortable. I assume we will remain a banking,food producing,technology and medicine,trading nation. (Though tiny Israel is fast overtaking anything to do with innovation; we have become stagnant,). Proscribed by international law, burdened with taxes so high we will gradually have no better living standards than the rest of the world. Except for the wealthy and connected. And Christians will be blamed, leaving no protection for the Jews. The ten nation confederacy mentioned in Revelation, and the covenant with many, including Israel, which is Satan’s attempt to supplant the covenant with Abraham, if Israel would only realize it, will guarantee them one thing…a Temple. And worship including animal sacrifice. This does not mean that attempting to build the temple could not occur at any time. It could be one of the conditions ratcheting up more trouble in the Middle East. I believe we have it all wrong, that after wars where Israel triumphs, and as Israel gas and oil business grows, the world will be afraid..of them! The covenant may require giving up nuclear weapons being part of an international grouping something like Nato today. This could be the hook that brings Gog, or Russia, down to Israel, thinking them unprotected and desiring, as they do now, to control energy in all forms. So what are the first seven judgements? (think of it, 3 ..3 is the number of God.. separate sets of judgements of 7 each, 7 being the number of completion and perfection. 6 is the number of man, He is short of God’s perfection. This is why the LGBT flag is so egregious, it mocks God’s plan with an abbreviated rainbow, God’s rainbow has seven colors, the rainbow flag has six… The first four seal judgements are .the conqueror who conquers with peace, war, famine, plagues and death. The last three are martyrdoms, a tremendous earthquake, and then…total silence from heaven. What a devastating thing. Contemplation of what must come. What does this mean? We have political realignment, and someone from the old Roman Empire will be the one who figures out the solution. Before this he will not be known as a world leader, so you can quit speculating,I have included a map of the Roman Empire at its largest extant.While it is true that Roman families held sway when Rome ruled , the Bible only specifies that the Beast will rise from the reformed Roman empire that’s a lot of territory. Matthew 24:23-24…23At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. Even the elect, Christians and Jews, will be deceived, to a large degree.. And religion will have turned towards the supernatural. The world will celebrate, as an ecumenical church rises (that’s the Harlot church) and as war and inevitable plague and famine follow, everyone will believe they are months away from true peace on earth. Except those pesky old time religion folks. It will be open season on Christians. (Having an outside enemy is so effective in bringing people together…) After given mankind what he wants, and the resultant chaos including the number of martyrs, God implements another warning, a huge earthquake, and horrific changes in the moon and sun. It seems people will even know it is a judgement, but instead of repenting and seeking the true God, they will hide from the “wrath of the Lamb.” Jews meanwhile, will be introduced to the two witnesses, witnesses whose power far exceeds the false miracle workers around the planet. And 144,000 of their brethren will be sealed by God and sent to preach the gospel. Well, that certainly makes Jerusalem a stumbling block. Supernatural protection. The next phase is a set of judgments that are “thirds.” Limited judgements, hail and fire destroying plant life, a meteor type event destroying 1/3 of the oceans, then a comet or meteor affecting the rivers. Water is already in short supply. Even with the deaths at the beginning of these things, (Daniels’ 70th week), or in other words, less mouths to feed the conditions become much worse. And now, something comes out of the abyss, which is literally the pit of hell. The locusts or beings torment mankind for five months, but no one dies of it. I suspect part of the new world leader’s promises are nanotech or immunizations which are supposed to allow man extended life. So, God gives the world a taste of it. Wanting to die but unable???? And then the armies of hell itself are unleashed and 1/3 of all mankind perishes. And yet, man still wants to make his own Gods and defies the Creator (the most amazing fact is that, God keep offering redemption and man keeps refusing it.) The last trumpet signals the bowl judgements, which is the last of God’s wrath poured out on earth. At some point, the Beast will destroy the harlot church and demand direct worship. These things are accomplished by a second beast, who can do miracles.(false prophet) The world will be enchanted, and all will willingly worship the beast, take the mark that allows them to buy and sell ,and believe utopia is around the corner, especially after he kills those two pesky witnesses. But God has a surprise in store for them..resurrection. It truly will take being bought by Satan to not see the power of God in what is happening. The bowls are; total judgements, unlike the previous 1/3 judgements. Sores covering the bodies of those who follow the Beast, the seas and rivers will become like blood,,and die, then scorching heat, impenetrable darkness on the kingdom of the Beast. Stop for a moment! Both the miracles of the two witnesses and the last set of judgments echo the judgements against Egypt because they would not let the Jews go. As well, it is a foretaste of Hell. God in his mercy allows mankind to experience what being separated from God forever is really like. And no one cares. They shake their fists. Just like Pharoah did. At some point during this, all believers in God will be killed. The 144,000 will be seen on Zion, in Heaven, So they are also gone from the earth. Total control of mankind is now in Satan’s grasp, though a large number of Jews will have escaped him. But then, God chose the Jews as his holy people long ago, and the whole miracle of redemption works through them. A fact that escapes Christian dominionists. Now the Euphrates dries up and the kings of the East advance (showing either the ten nation confederacy broke apart, or China, etc never joined it. ) As all these armies march on Jerusalem, terrible judgements fall on them, Hail at hundred pound weights, a terrible earthquake, which is actually the beginning of restoring the earth, every city falls as well. So Satan watches his kingdom and control crumble..Jerusalem is divided by the quake, a huge rift forms, and Jews escape through this cleft. And when Jesus arrives to take his rule, he simply destroys those armies with the Word. End of it. He establishes Jerusalem as his capital, and a thousand year reign follows. Those nations (individuals and governments, people as a whole seem to be indicated)who did not take the mark are allowed to enter the Millennium, as I assume by this point they believe in God and his promises!) If you believe God has simply left us to wither and die you are wrong. He has not only suffered and died to rescue us from our sinful state, he has plans on top of plans to offer this salvation to every human being. I believe the cycle of instability we now see in the earth’s crust is preparation for the huge earthquakes in the end times. I believe the huge population we now see, far from being a curse, is God’s final gathering, there may be as many people alive right now as have ever lived, meaning ½ half of humanity has the ability to hear and respond to the truth of salvation. If God never gives up on us, should we give up on him? Those of rational mind need to consider who they vote for, how they work, and how to keep families and communities safe. We aren’t allowed to give up and wait. If you thought I was going to offer the rapture as the reason the world falls apart, I don’t know, some very wise Bible teachers believe there will be so few of us who believe in Jesus, the loss won’t be noticed. Actually, millions upon millions will be saved during this Tribulation period. As God moves from the gospel of Grace back to the gospel of the Kingdom, as Jews become the problem the world cannot solve, it is in God’s timing as to when he removes the restrainer (against evil) and allows the economies to fail, horrific spiritual oppression and possession and the resultant chaos, drugs as everyday fare, a state of hopelessness,,, as it surely isn’t just human or even Satanic intervention keeping things afloat. Truly, God is still on the throne, and it is all keyed to His timing. |
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