Commentary on world events that relate to Bible prophecy and on Rapture Ready issues world events.

 

Dec 28, 2010

Good Riddance to a "Decade from Hell?"

At the end of most years, I often take time to reflect on what type of year it has been for prophecy. Since this is the last year of the decade, I think it is all the more important for us to ponder what has occurred and what type of forecast we have for the new decade.

The new millennium began with a sigh of relief as fears of a Y2K computer bug proved to be a false alarm. In 2000, we had the bombing of the USS Cole and the disputed presidential election between George Bush and Al Gore. Since every year has its share of bad news, there was no need for pessimism.

What turned the decade decidedly sour was the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001. More than half of people surveyed named the attack as the biggest event of the decade. Gone are the days when all you needed was a boarding pass to get on an airplane. Today, going from Dallas to New York is like going from West Germany to East Germany during the height of the Cold War.

The past decade was also marked by scandals, schemes, and financial meltdowns. Time Magazine has recently declared the 2000s the "Decade from Hell." Time then predicted that the twenty-teens would be a period of sunnier days.

A majority of Americans share this negative view of the 2000s. According to a Pew Research Center poll, fifty percent of those surveyed expressed a negative view of the past decade, compared to 27 percent who viewed it positively, with 21 percent holding neither a positive nor negative view, and 2 percent undecided.

People at the close of 1929 looked hopefully at 1930s for relief. Little did they know the economic hardship was only at the beginning of the downward slope.

I see the last decade as one of squandered time. One writer called it the decade of "oughts," because so much that ought to have been done wasn't:

Control entitlement spending
Rein in Islamic terrorists
Solve our long-term energy needs
Invest in food production
Stop the spread of nuke technology
Combat the moral decline of our society

The writers and editors of Time Magazine better keep their "Decade from Hell' label handy because they may soon find themselves needing to cut and paste it onto the new decade. After the ball drops on Times Square, all the problems of the previous decade will still be with us.

A lot of the blame for missed opportunity rests at the feet of the church. If America had its moral house in order, the economic, social, and political issues would eventually right themselves. The Bible calls believers the salt of the earth. Our job is to be the nation's moral compass. During the past decade, we've collectively been going along with the ride.

I'm absolutely ashamed at what passes today as "Christian" television. I'd rather watch back-to-back hours of Obama speeches than listen to some of these top-rated preachers. While the feel-good message plays on, the forces of darkness have taken over our nation.

It may have been a bad decade for the secular world, but it wasn't for the kingdom of God. The gospel message has made huge inroads in the past decade. We have to be very near the point of fulfilling a key prediction made by Jesus, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14).

The 2000s have been an incredibly productive time for Rapture Ready. When the year 2000 began, there were only thirty article links on the main site, with about three hundred in total. Today there are over twenty-four thousand files on our server. This means 98.7 percent of RR's content was created during this time. In 2000, there was no daily news, message board, or audio files.

I would be very surprised if I have an opportunity to make any reflective views of the teens in December of 2019. It's not just that prophecy is in such an advanced state. Far too many people are assuming that God will grace us with better years to come.

"So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:33-34).

-- Todd

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Isolating Israel: A Most Dangerous Game|

A sense of growing isolation is pervasive among some top Israeli governmental/military experts. One forward-looking think-tank has gone so far as to simulate Israel's losing more and more geopolitical ground--indeed, losing more self-defense wiggle room--in its constant polemical confrontations with its bellicose neighbors. Tragically, in terms of dangers posed to America, the U.S. presidential administration is right smack in the middle of the trend toward isolating the Jewish state.

Israel will find itself diplomatically sidelined and militarily muzzled as the United States pursues a nuclear deal with Iran next year, according to a closed-door war-game at Israel's top strategic think tank.

Not even a warning shot by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu--the simulation featured an undeclared Israeli commando raid on Iran's Arak heavy water plant--would shake U.S. President Barack Obama's insistence on dialogue. Israel's arch-foe, meanwhile, will likely keep enriching uranium, perhaps even winning the grudging assent of the West. (Reuters, "Think Tank: U.S. Would Sideline Israel in Iran Nuclear Dispute" 12/23/09)

The somber war theatrics took place last November 1 at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). It involved experts in the strategic thinking that must be a part of planning for possible confrontations with enemies vowed to erase Israel and the Jews from the face of the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was played in the simulated action by Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser. U.S. President Barack Obama was played by Zvi Rafiah, an Israeli ex-diplomat with extensive U.S. ties.

The American president and his team didn't come off very well in the simulation, which featured the Israeli team being sequestered from the American team as both contemplated actions against Iran in the matters involving Iran's developing nuclear program.

The Israeli portraying the prime minister said at the end of the simulation, which featured the Americans inserting themselves within the process of Israel's dealing with Iran's Islamic leadership: "The Iranians came out feeling better than the Americans, as they were simply more determined to stick to their objectives."

As part of the diplomatic intrigues during the exercise, the Israelis remained separated from the talks, isolated by the other international players. The former Israeli national security advisor who played the prime minister issued this observation about the isolation: "Our leverage over the Americans, when we could prise them away from the Iranians and Europeans and others, was limited....Pretty much the only card we had to play was the military action card. And that's a faded card" (ibid.).

The words no doubt reflect visceral Israeli apprehensions at the top levels of those charged with maintaining resolve against hatreds that go back three millennia. The United States, under the current leadership, doesn't have the resolve to stay in the fight against Israel's deadly foes, whose hatred for the Jewish state is often demonstrated by the verbal threats made by the likes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This seems to be the bottom-line analysis that emerged from the war games.

The war games scenario seems right in line with what the ancient prophet Zechariah had to say about Israel in the very last of the last days--during the Tribulation, also called the time of Jacob's trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). During that time of horror, Israel will be isolated, hated, and assaulted to an extent that even Adolf Hitler couldn't accomplish. We know this because of the words of Jesus, prophesying almost the very words He gave Jeremiah the prophet to foretell: "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24:21).

Zechariah prophesied an even more devastating fate for those who will perpetrate deadly actions against Israel at the very end of human history just before Christ's return:

The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zechariah 12:1-3)

Like in the case of so many signals pointing to the time of the last seven years of God's judgment and wrath, the fact that Israel's top military leaders are searching for how to survive the worldwide hatred they see developing for the nation should alert every student of Bible prophecy. Planet earth is bumping up against the end of the age. The next event in the headlines might be "Millions Vanish!"

--- Terry

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